Dust In The Void
by Broken Stone
Summary: As usual, the Doctor and Rose get more than they bargained for when answering a distress signal. 10th Doctor.
1. Signal

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?**

This is my first Doctor Who fic, hope you like. I'm trying to stick as closely to the mythos of the TV series, rather than the books, but there are contradictions in that, so if I make any mistakes, I'm sorry.

**Chapter Summary:** The 10th Doctor and Rose have received a distress signal and are going to answer it. Rose complains about the Doctor's driving. They arrive at their destination.

**Chapter One: Signal**

Through the void of space, wide and silent, tumbled a blue police box. A truly incongruous item to be found this far away from its own time and place. It hurtled through space, with the groan and grind of engines that were ancient and powerful.

'What's happening?' Rose yelled above the sound of the TARDIS.

'Got a distress call!' the Doctor yelled back. He was grinning widely, literally leaping around the TARDIS in excitement. 'Going to go and find out who needs our help!'

'Where's it coming from?' she shouted.

'Hey, I told you to hold that down!' he snapped and then added, 'I have no idea where it's coming from! Could be anywhere, anywhen!'

'You don't know! So we could be going anywhere and you don't know?'

'Yeah!' His grin was infectious. 'Fun, isn't it!'

Rose couldn't help herself and started laughing. 'I know better than to ask you how dangerous it's going to be!'

'Course you do!' He grabbed a mallet and smashed it down on the TARDIS. 'Come on, work!' he hollered. 'Honestly, this is the best ship in the universe and I still have to bang it to make it work! Work, dammit!'

There was a miniature explosion, a flurry of golden sparks and both Rose and the Doctor were hurled backwards onto the floor.

'Don't be like that!' the Doctor implored, spreading his arms wide. 'Come, work!'

'Maybe hitting it isn't the best idea in the world?' Rose suggested, picking herself up off of the floor. This Doctor drove far more crazily than his previous incarnation, and seemed to enjoy the perils of his steering far more. However, he always took insults about his driving very much to heart…hearts.

He rounded on her. 'I told you to hold that down!'

'Well, I was until you decided to try and electrocute us both!' she shot back.

The Doctor either didn't hear or ignored her. She reckoned it was the latter. He was busy pressing buttons and muttering under his breath at a hundred miles an hour, darting around the control panel of the TARDIS as if he had springs in his trainers. He was beginning to make Rose feel dizzy.

'Are we nearly there yet?' she asked loudly.

He stopped and stared at her. 'Are we nearly there yet?' he mimicked. 'How old are you?'

'I was just asking,' she muttered.

'Well don't, hold that down!' The TARDIS swerved and veered crazily. Rose had to hold onto the TARDIS as tightly as she could to prevent herself from being hurled across the ship.

'Here we are!' the Doctor yelled, waving his arms excitedly in the air. At that exact same moment the TARDIS halted and Rose crashed onto the floor again. 'Try not falling over,' he advised, 'it's less painful.'

Getting up, trying to straighten her hair and clothes, she said, 'You really need to learn how to drive this thing properly.'

His expression darkened and for a moment he looked suddenly sad. 'An old friend of mine used to say exactly the same thing,' he said quietly. 'She was always criticising my driving.' He shook his head and smiled again. 'Come on, then! We're here! Let's go see what we've found!'

'I'm already worried,' Rose murmured but she followed him towards the door. He grabbed up his coat and pulled it on as he walked. He opened the door and peered out.

'Hmm,' he said thoughtfully. 'This is interesting.'

Rose looked over his shoulder. 'It's a room,' she said flatly. 'With nothing in it and no windows.'

'Exactly,' he said thoughtfully.

'Is this where we're supposed to be?'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

Rose gave him a hard look. 'How many times have we ended in the wrong place? The wrong time?'

'There's no need to be like that,' he said, sounding hurt. 'You try driving the TARDIS next time. Anyway, I was following a signal,' he added. He sauntered over to the door, hands deep in the pockets of his coat.

Rose shook her head and followed him. There was no point in arguing to make her point about his terrible driving. She was certain his driving had got worse. But whenever she tactfully suggested that maybe he go for a refresher course of TARDIS driving lessons, he got all cranky. Once he had told her very shortly that, to quote, 'as a big pink and yellow ape' she would have no idea how to steer the TARDIS so she was to quit bugging him. The second time he said very crossly that the TARDIS was ideally designed to be steered by several Time Lords and since he was one Time Lord and she definitely did not qualify as even a quarter of a Time Lord, in his opinion he was doing pretty well. Since these conversations usually ended with one of them sulking in the corner, she had long ago stopped trying to make her point.

'So where are we?' she asked.

He wrinkled his nose as he thought. 'The Year 3Billion,' he said reflectively. 'The planet Tenarca.' He grinned suddenly. 'Fantastic! I should be able to get some parts for the TARDIS here. Once we find out who sent that distress signal and it gives us a decent reason for being here.'

'What, there's like – TARDIS dealerships?' she asked, bemused.

'No,' he said, 'but I can get proper wiring and circuit boards that will make her run more efficiently.' He smiled. 'Best not let anyone know we travel in a TARDIS, okay? She's the best ship in the universe and I don't want anyone trying to get inside or start fiddling with her.'

'I won't tell anyone we travel in a TARDIS,' Rose said wearily.

'Good.' Whilst they had been speaking, he had been examining the door and now he took out the sonic screwdriver and started fiddling. 'Odd,' he said eventually.

'What? Can't you get it open?'

'Course I can,' he said scornfully. 'Just take a bit longer than usual. But still, odd.'

The sonic screwdriver buzzed and hummed and finally the door slid open. They walked out into a bare, white corridor that was very similar to the room they had just come out of.

'There we are,' the Doctor said happily. 'Remember, if anyone asks, we're travellers here to look at parts for ships and if they ask what kind of ship, pretend to be a useless idiot who has no idea what kind of ship you travel in.'

'Great,' Rose muttered.

'It's nothing personal,' he assured her, quickly. 'Just you don't know much about ships and well, I do…' He trailed off. Rose was simply lost for words. They had come to the end of the corridor.

In front of them was a vast window. It spread across an entire wall, and they found themselves looking down upon a vast, sprawling city that was all black stone and silver metal, with small ships and shuttles flittering about the towering spires like tiny, shiny beetles. The sky was dark, a single moon floating above the city. It was a city of towers and sky-scrapers, and the building that they were stood inside was so high that when Rose peered at the view outside, she couldn't even see the ground.

'Welcome to Cyber City,' a computerised, female voice said from above their heads. Rose jumped and looked up. The Doctor continued to look down at the view.

'That's what this place is?' Rose asked him.

He nodded. 'However many times I see this, it's still strangely beautiful,' he said. 'But what a name for a place, honestly. How tacky is that? It's not as if this place is the centre of technology and information in the universe. Although, to be fair, it was when it was first built. Did you know that there are people who live here who have never set foot on the ground? Amazing. And this building,' he continued. 'This is the Spiral, the central building of the city. Oldest building on the planet, all the bigwigs live here. All the powers. I remembered when they opened it.' He smiled reflectively. 'It was a nice day but then it started raining and all the aristocracy got wet. That was funny.'

'Where do we go from here?' she asked, not replying to the monologue. He didn't expect her to and it was more for his own benefit than hers.

'Oh, I don't know,' he said cheerfully. 'We'll take a look around, trouble will come and find us at some point.'

'It usually does,' Rose agreed.

He gave her a wide grin and offered his arm. 'Shall we go?' he asked.

She took his arm and returned the grin. 'Why not?'

_Hopefully, the next chapter won't be too long; unfortunately, my current timetable isn't as dedicated to writing as I am and assessments have to come first!_


	2. The City

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?**

**Chapter Summary**: The Doctor and Rose take a look around the city and trouble finds them very quickly. As always.

**Chapter Two: The City**

As they walked out of the corridor, a female computerised voice said, 'You are now leaving teleportation dock 707. Please have your identification and documents ready for inspection. Only then will you be permitted to leave. Thank you.'

'This is a teleportation dock?' Rose said.

'For teleportation devices,' the Doctor said in a tone that she recognised as being deliberately patronising; he was trying to wind her up. 'Yeah. We have to present our documentation – psychic paper in our case – in order to register the presence of the TARDIS and make sure we're the only people who can access it. They'll give us a key so that we can leave whenever we want, but she won't get stolen. And they'll have an accurate record of exactly who has got teleportation devices.'

'Great,' Rose muttered. She preferred the idea of anonymity.

The Doctor handed over a piece of psychic paper as usual and as usual, it was accepted. They were both presented with a small piece of square metal with a number and barcode inscribed on it and warned not to lose it.

'Is there any way we can help you at the moment?' the very efficient woman who had dealt with them in a professional and bored manner, asked.

'Yes, can tell us where we can get some food and do some shopping?' the Doctor asked.

'Yes, I can. You can either take a taxi to Circle Three, or you can take the long way around. Takes longer, but it's a chance to see the sight. Take the Elevator Seven down to the Level fifty-two. That Level is a stop for the sky-train or a taxi. Ask for Circle Three. That's the shopping area. Either form of transport can take you across to Circle Three. You can either get off at the entrance to the Circle, in which case you have to take a short sky-walk to get into the Circle itself, or you can ask them to take you directly inside. Does that answer your question?'

'Yes, thanks,' the Doctor said cheerfully.

'You mean you got all that?' Rose asked.

'Yeah,' he said, hands in his pockets, strolling over the elevator. 'Besides, I've been here before. I just needed a reminder of where go.'

They weren't challenged by anyone as they walked through the building the Doctor called the Spiral. The only person who asked to see ID was handed the psychic paper and let them carry on. Rose supposed it was because the Doctor was very good at looking as if he belonged wherever he was, even if he didn't. The suit definitely helped, although Rose still wasn't sure about the trainers. Combined with the smart suit, they just said _student_.

The Doctor just strolled past the security, who were grim looking humanoids dressed in severe black, flashing a piece of psychic paper. They nodded and let him and Rose passed. Since the Doctor seemed to know where he was going, Rose didn't pay much attention to the direction they took. She was far more interested in the sights and the aliens.

Eventually, the Doctor said, 'Ah, here we are. Circle Three. Lets take a look around.'

She did so. It was huge. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting. They were stood in the entrance, and a massive sign reading 'Welcome to Circle Three' flashing in brilliant blue light above their heads. It was like the inside of a shopping mall, only more futuristic. Everything was white, polished and clean. There were stalls, also white and clean, stairs cases and elevators. When she looked up, she saw several more floors towering above them, presumably with more shops and stalls. There was a fountain directly in front of them, spilling water that changed colour every few minutes. There were also, to her surprise, a large amount of stunning green plants everywhere.

'Wow,' she said, in awe. 'This so beats Oxford Street.'

The Doctor smiled. 'Each tier is different,' he explained. 'This floor is for food, as you can see, the next one for books and media, the next for machinery, the next for fashion and so on and on.'

'Why are we here?' she asked. 'I mean, we're basically popping down to the local market, right? A massive, impressive market, but still a market.'

'Let's call it some sightseeing,' he said cheerfully.

'What about the distress signal?'

'Oh, we'll be looking for that too,' he assured her. 'But you know us. We don't need to look for trouble, trouble hunts us down.'

'How true.'

'In the meantime, we might as well take a look around, see what we can find.' He gave her a cheeky grin. 'Beside, Circle Three is the area the signal was coming from. Best place to start.'

Rose smacked his arm. 'You could have told me that!'

He gave her a hurt look. 'I just did.'

She shook her head. 'You're hopeless.'

'I know,' he replied, looking around with a frown. 'They've moved everything. Don't you just hate that? You finally get to know where everything is and then they go and move it all. There used to be a sushi bar over there and now there's a metavolian doughnut stall.'

'Stop complaining,' Rose said. 'So? Where are we going?'

'Let's just wander,' he decided. 'Enjoy the short period of peace we have left before everything starts going crazy as usual.'

'All right,' Rose said. 'I'm hungry. Let's get something to eat.'

'What do you want?' he asked, steering her towards the nearest food stall.

'I don't know. What kind of food do they serve here?'

He considered this. 'I know, you'll like this.' He leaned over the counter and said to the man cooking something that Rose couldn't identify, 'Is this genuine Virineese food?'

'Yeah,' the man said. 'You want some?'

'Two, please,' the Doctor said, handing over a metal card that Rose assumed was money. She wondered where he had got it and made a mental note to ask later.

The man was about to take the money when a commotion broke out behind them.

The Doctor and Rose both turned in that direction.

There was a man running in their direction. He was screaming in agony, hands covering his face. His clothing had holes in it and horrifically scarred flesh was visible underneath. There was blood, lots of it, on him, and blood spilling onto the ground as he ran. He stumbled and almost fell to the ground. His hands came away from his face and revealed a horribly scarred face. His left eye was gone, a bloody socket left in its place, with signs of hasty repair made to the flesh around it. His nose was broken, bleeding, half the skin on his skull simply gone, his jaw broken and shifted over to one side. His hands were bleeding and torn and there was a gaping hole in his stomach. He didn't stop screaming all the time he ran. It was incredible that he was still alive.

Then he collapsed in front of the Doctor who instantly moved to help him.

'What happened?' the Doctor asked him intently. One glance had told him that this man was dying.

The man looked up at him and shook his head. 'Death,' he whispered. His single eye stared at the Doctor in horror. 'The darkness, the horror! No!' he shrieked suddenly. 'Let me go, let me go!' He struggled, cowering away from the Doctor as if terrified.

'Who did this to you?' the Doctor demanded. 'Please tell me who did this to you!'

'Death,' the man whispered and slumped to the ground and lay still.

'Wake up,' the Doctor said, shaking him. 'Wake up!'

'He's dead,' Rose said quietly.

The Doctor got up and stepped away. 'I know,' he said in a low voice, looking around slowly.

Everyone was staring, shocked and silent. The dead man lay in a pool of blood on the ground.

'I think trouble just found us,' Rose said softly.

'Oh, yes,' the Doctor said grimly. He turned his head and met the gaze of a young man stood some way away. His gaze was drawn by how intently the other man looked back at him. He was young, had short blond hair, and was dressed in black.

'Doctor?' Rose said. He looked at her. When he looked back at the young man, he had gone.

'Let's go before people start asking questions,' the Doctor said in a low voice, taking her arm.

She didn't resist, but followed him quickly through the suddenly gathering crowd, all wanting their macabre glimpse of the mutilated body.

* * *

_Will update asap, if I get all my work done...hope you all enjoyed this chapter...Sorry it's taken so long to update but inspiratopn just hasn't hit me recently!_


	3. In Search Of Answers

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?**

**Chapter Summary:** The Doctor decides to search for the mysterious blond man, thinking he has something to do with the dead man. Rose does some shopping and makes a new friend.

**Chapter Three: In Search Of Answers**

'I don't understand,' Rose huffed as she followed the Doctor.

'Nothing new there,' he snapped over his shoulder.

She rolled her eyes. 'Thanks for that,' she called dryly. 'I mean, why are we running?'

'Trying not to get caught by anyone in authority!' He skidded to a halt and she almost crashed into him.

'I realise that,' she said, stepping back. 'Why are we running in this direction?'

'I want to speak to that man,' he said shortly, looking around intently. 'I'm sure he disappeared into this direction.'

'What man?' she asked, trying to catch her breath.

'There was a man, dressed in black. He was watching, he didn't seem bothered by what was going on. That makes me suspicious.'

'Why?'

'Why?' He turned around and treated her to an incredulous look. 'What do you mean? Because it is, that's why.'

'It was only a question,' she said sulkily.

'Come on.' He started walking, trying to look inconspicuous and succeeding perfectly. Rose skulked along behind him, still taking in the sights. Even the horror of the sight they had just witnessed wasn't enough to curb her interest in the city. And the shops.

'Stop ogling the sights,' the Doctor said without looking around. 'We have work to do.'

She pulled a face at his back and, still not looking around, he said, 'And stop that. It makes you look above five years old.'

'You know, you have work to do,' she pointed out. 'I didn't even see this guy you're talking about.'

'Then shut up and let me work,' he said testily.

Rose shook her head. 'You are in a seriously bad mood, you know that?'

He wrinkled his nose, looking irritated and said, 'Why don't you go – shop, or something?'

'Shop?'

'Isn't that something you humans like doing?' he asked.

She folded her arms. 'This is a 'go away while I go poke around' hint, isn't it?'

'Yeah, it is.' He gave her a plaintive look. 'Go on, go enjoy yourself. I'll call you when I find something.'

'Oh, all right,' she said reluctantly and then smiled as he tossed something to her. 'Is this money?'

'Yeah, go enjoy a shopping trip,' he said. 'Just stay out of trouble!' he yelled as she shrugged and walked away. He sighed, seeing she was annoyed. However, sometimes it just didn't do to have anyone around, especially when he was likely to be getting himself into some serious trouble. Besides, humans liked shopping, didn't they? He had some vague recollection that Rose has occasionally referred to 'retail therapy' although he wasn't exactly certain how spending large sums of money that you probably didn't have on things you probably didn't need constituted as therapy. Then again, he'd never pretended to understand humans.

Now. Down to business. The Doctor looked around, making sure he wasn't being watched and went in search of a computer.

* * *

Rose's irritation with the Doctor sending her off with some pocket money vanished quite quickly. The sheer amount of shops and people were enough to keep her interested, even if she hadn't had any money to spend. Since she did, she decided to spend as much as she wanted, never mind the Doctor. And if he actually noticed how much he had spent, she could point out that he had left her behind. That would probably shut him up. 

So she spent an enjoyable couple of hours trying on clothes, shoes and buying a few things. A couple were presents; things for her mum, Mickey and so on. She got herself some lunch, although she wasn't entirely certain what to get, so she just got several items and sat down on a bench to try some of them.

Unwrapping the neat box of food the man on the food stall had made up for her, she regarded the contents dubiously. None of it was remotely recognisable, at least not to her, and although she was familiar with using chopsticks, the single serrated skewer was not something she was familiar. She poked suspiciously at something that looked like a purple tentacle and wondered what on earth she had got herself into with this. Not only did she not have a clue what she was eating but she also didn't have a clue how to eat it. Not wanting to look stupid, she took her time poking at the contents of the container, trying to figure out how to eat the damned stuff.

* * *

The Doctor had acquired a computer. Acquired in the sense that he had pick-pocketed someone, very quickly and skilfully, and had then retreated to a dark corner of Circle Three to use the thing. After a little bit of twiddling with the sonic screwdriver, he worked out how to use it, how to get past the passwords the owner had secured it with. Unfortunately, the previous owner hadn't reckoned on a mind like the Doctor's and it took him only a matter of minutes to get into the tiny, hand held computer. It wasn't much more than a personal organiser, good for checking bank details, messages and so on, but for most people, it wasn't much use otherwise. However, the Doctor wasn't most people and, with a bit more twiddling, he found what he wanted. 

'Access to the Network,' he said happily, out loud. The Network was similar to the Internet, but was limited. For one thing, it contained only factual information, mainly about everything that was going on in the planet's system at the time. It contained news reports, statistics, lists of who was who in the city, flight timetables, space shuttle timetables, and so on. Hacking into the Network was easy enough for the Doctor and it wasn't too hard to find what he was looking for. He found a report on the dead body that he and Rose had witnessed dying, which was reported as being alleged terrorist activity.

'Millions of years later, it's still the number one excuse,' the Doctor muttered and continued his search. There was little else on the dead man, and nothing solid.

He changed tactics and started searching through lists of important and influential people on the planet. He was certain that the blond man he had seen knew something; he had been the only person there who hadn't been shocked or horrified, or even a little surprised. He had looked as if he had expected or known what was going on.

When he couldn't find anyone of any importance who matched the man's description, the Doctor gave that up, deciding that he should try another tactic.

He started looking for anything unsual in the past few months, checking all the news reports for other incidents similar to the one that he and Rose had witnessed.

It made uneasy reading.

There had been a lot of similar incidents recently.

Most of them had been covered up.

Now was probably the time to meet up with Rose again. They had work to do.

* * *

Rose had spent enough time poking aimlessly at her food. She was hungry, didn't want to just toss it in the bin. Tentatively, she stabbed at a bright green ball of some weird substance and eyed it as she lifted it out of the container. 

'Having fun there?' an amused voice asked. She looked around. There was a man stood opposite her, smiling with obvious amusement.

'This is kind of new to me,' she said apologetically.

'First time visitor?' he asked, sitting down beside her. 'I wouldn't have recommended the Tivelli takeaway, myself.'

'No? What's wrong with it?'

'Damned difficult to eat, that's what.'

Rose laughed and examined him. He was tall, thin, with spiky blond hair that had black streaks running through it, turquoise eyes and a faint smile. He was very cute, she had to admit, and the amended that thought. Way above 'cute' and heading into 'gorgeous' and 'sexy' territory. She was glad she had dressed up a little bit for this excursion.

'So, how would you recommend I try and eat this?' she asked him.

'In private.' He grinned and she realised that he was teasing her. Even better, he was flirting with her. 'Actually, it's not too bad. Just use the skewer – there's no specific way to eat this stuff unless you're at some big fancy dinner.'

'What is this stuff, anyway?' she asked, putting the green ball in her mouth.

He blinked and said brightly, 'So, you're from off planet, right?'

'You can tell?'

He nodded. 'I've lived here for years, of course I can tell. You're a human, right?'

'Yes,' she said slowly. 'And you're not?'

His smile was slightly bitter. 'Half,' he said after a moment. He seemed to expect her to comment upon this and when she didn't, he added, 'I'm a hybrid.'

'Yeah?' she said with some puzzlement. 'And?'

He looked genuinely thrown by that comment and was about to say something when a commotion broke out behind them. There was shouting and yelling, the voices raised and angry. People in black uniforms were heading their way.

Rose looked at her new friend who had gone white. He got to his feet and was looking over the heads the crowd at the approaching black uniforms. He looked angry.

She looked in the direction he was, trying to see whatever it was he was looking at. When she turned around again, he was gone.

'Where'd he go?' she demanded aloud, bewildered. He had just melted into the crowd, had simply disappeared.

Her mobile rang. She answered it. At the same moment, she got up and strolled nonchalantly out of the way of the commotion, trying to keep from being noticed. It worked. No one paid any attention to a tourist on a phone. The people in the black uniforms were pushing people out of the way, shouting and shoving, and people were yelling back, stepping away or even running away.

'Hi,' she said. 'You found anything, Doctor?'

'Not exactly,' he said down the phone. 'But I have found something interesting, it might be related to this distress signal but it might not be.'

'Hence the not exactly. You want me to come and find you?'

'We'll meet at the entrance of Circle Three,' he said.

'I have no idea where the entrance is anymore.'

'There are signposts everywhere,' he said impatiently. 'Fifteen minutes. I'll see you there.' He hung up.

* * *

_Hope you all liked! Please read and review, reviews are very welcome!_


	4. Shops

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?**

**Chapter Summary**: The Doctor and Rose discuss the mysterious events that the Doctor has started unearthing.

**Chapter Four: Shops**

When she found him, the Doctor was sat cross-legged on a bench, getting funny looks from people as they walked past.

'So you're not going to ask me if I've had a nice time,' Rose said.

The Doctor didn't look up from the tiny, hand held computer in his palm. 'No.' He glanced up and grinned. 'You brought food!'

'Yeah, have it,' she said, handing it over. 'It isn't really my sort of thing.'

'No,' he agreed, examining the contents and helping himself quite happily. 'I wouldn't think so.' He dug into the meal, using the metal skewer with easy confidence, not dropping a single piece, like she had done.

'What kind of trouble did you find?' she asked, sitting down next to him.

'That death,' he said, 'wasn't the first one. There have been a lot of disappearances in this city for the past three years. And there have been some violent murders. All kinds of horrific injuries to the bodies.'

'Like what?'

'Limbs missing, skin torn off of the bodies, bones and internal organs missing. Not just missing, but removed with surgical precision. Some of them weren't exactly dead when found.'

Rose grimaced. 'Like that man?'

'Exactly.' He shook his head. 'Nine hundred years of time and space and I still don't understand the full scale of horror the beings of this universe are capable of.' He sounded more sad than angry.

'What are we going to do?' she asked a moment later. 'Do you think it's connected to the distress signal?'

'Seems like too much of a coincidence, doesn't it?' he said, cheering up a bit. 'I think we should assume for the moment that the two events are related. In my experience, these things usually are.'

'What's the plan, then?'

'Haven't a clue.'

Rose thought that his good spirits seemed mostly returned and said, 'Nothing new there, then. What are we going to do in absence of a plan?'

'Well,' he said thoughtfully, 'the signal came from Circle Three. Not entirely sure where, but it's somewhere in here. If we noticed a distress signal, chances are someone else did, too. What we need to do is find someone who is most likely to have detected the signal and known what it was.'

'Where do you suggest we do that?'

'No idea.'

Rose thought for a few moments and then said, 'I went into a computer shop on the fourth level. Think someone in there might know something?'

The Doctor considered this and said approvingly, 'Maybe, maybe not, but it's worth a try. Good thinking. Let's make our way up there.'

Rose motioned at the computer in his hand. 'Where did you get that?'

The Doctor cleared his throat and said hastily, 'Let's get going, Rose.'

'You stole it, didn't you?' she asked, catching him up.

He avoided looking at her. 'Which way is quickest? Ah, that way!' He charged off towards an elevator. Rose shook her head and followed him, running to keep up. He jumped into the elevator and she dove in just before the doors closed.

'Didn't you learn anything from the last time we got on different elevators?' she demanded.

He shrugged. 'Never seen you move so fast, though.' He gave her a cheeky grin and then pressed one of the floor numbers.

Rose opened her mouth to reply and realised he was leading her away from the previous subject. 'Well?' she said. 'Did you?'

He glanced down at the computer in his hand and tucked it away in one of his many pockets. 'I have no idea what you're talking about,' he said with great dignity.

Rose shook her head, but gave up, seeing that she wasn't going to win this one.

'So, we're going to try this computer place?' she asked.

'Like you said, it's possible someone detected something. Maybe we can then find out who sent the signal.'

'Great.' She smiled, looking pleased. 'Things have been too quiet recently, right?'

He thought about this then nodded.

'You get cranky when things are too quiet,' she said.

He scowled. 'I do not get cranky.'

'Yeah you do.'

'No I don't.'

'Yeah you do.'

He sniffed. 'I don't like the quiet life,' he said eventually.

Rose laughed.

The elevator stopped.

'Here we are then,' he said, stepping out and taking a good look around. 'Where was this shop?'

'This way.' She couldn't suppress a small feeling of smugness as she led him through the crowd, motioning for him to keep up with. For once, she wasn't having to run after him. She grinned over her shoulder at him and was rewarded with his usual cheerful smile in return.

The computer shop was massive. The Doctor actually looked impressed as he took a look around, casually.

'Excuse me,' he said to one of the staff, a young human woman wearing a bright purple t-shirt with the name of the shop emblazed across it.

She gave him a bright smile. 'Yes, sir? Can I help you?'

'I was just wondering – who is in charge here?'

Rose was surprised. He usually poked around casually, slowly drawing answers out of people before they even realised what he was doing.

'Mistress Liana,' the girl replied. 'Why? Are you one of her visitors?'

'Yes,' the Doctor said, flashing a piece of psychic paper at her. 'Here to visit her.'

'I see.' The girl gave him a slightly suspicious look, no longer so friendly. 'Well, Mistress Liana is here at the moment, so you're in luck, sir. Would you like me to find her for you?'

'You do that,' the Doctor said pleasantly. The girl ducked her head quickly and with a muttering of, 'Yes sir, right away sir,' she scurried away.

'This Liana must have powerful friends,' the Doctor observed.

'She seemed scared,' Rose commented.

'The powerful people in this city are people to be scared of,' he confirmed. 'I'm not surprised. What does surprise me is – if this Liana has powerful friends she probably is powerful. What is a powerful woman doing running a shop?'

'Maybe she wants something to do,' Rose suggested. 'Power can be boring, I guess. You might take something on as a hobby.'

'Maybe,' he agreed. 'There's more fun and interesting things you can do, rather than running a shop.'

Rose smiled. 'Aren't there just.'

They exchanged glances and sniggered.

The girl returned and, very nervously, said, 'Mistress Liana sends her apologies, she was not expecting any visitors today and requests that you wait, if that is not too much trouble. She will not be long.'

'Of course,' the Doctor said.

The girl looked relieved, ducked her head again and once again hurried away.

The Doctor and Rose exchanged glances again, puzzled looks this time.

'I suppose we just wait,' the Doctor said, picking up some peculiar contraption that Rose had no idea what it was, and examined it with obvious interest.

'All right,' she said. 'You going to tell me what something of these things do?'

'If you like,' he said dubiously. 'Might bore you, though.'

'One thing you never are, Doctor,' Rose said quite calmly, 'is boring.'

* * *

_Hope that was enjoyable! Update will hopefully be in the next couple of days! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, they are greatly appreciated!_


	5. Xianfrith

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?**

**Chapter Summary: The Doctor and Rose are busy waiting to speak to Mistress Liana. Meanwhile, the blond man the Doctor saw has a report to make.**

**Chapter Five: Xianfrith**

Former Commander Xianfrith Excalda had been enjoying his chat with the strange human girl when the security personnel came lumbering in their direction. He had moved swiftly out of their line of vision, heading through the heavy crowd and making sure he kept well ahead of them. That they were not after him obviously crossed his mind, but when one was heading the 'Most Wanted' list then it paid to be overly cautious.

Xan was good at cautious and at patient, but sometimes recklessness took over. He had seen the young woman struggling with her meal and, amused, he had decided to talk. Now he was regretting it. Still, he had another motive in talking to her.

When the prisoner had died early that day, he had seen her with a man, a man who had seen him, stood away from the action. The man had seemed familiar, although Xan had never seen him before. There was something familiar about him, something that Xan recognised although right now he couldn't place.

He hurried through the crowd, moving against its tide. It had been a long time since he had dared to venture out into the busy streets again, but it was unavoidable. He had been needed, and then everything had fallen apart because one of the prisoners had escaped.

He took the quickest exit out of Circle Three and made his way down to Circle Seven, otherwise known as the Slums. It had been the place where he had grown up, had fought most of his life to escape and was now where he was forced to hide.

No one who might have tried to apprehend approached him and he made his way very quickly into Circle Seven. A few people on the street corners, members of the street gangs that ruled Circle Seven, saw him heading their way. Attracted by his expensive clothing and the fact that he was alone, a couple looked up and watched him intently, poised to spring upon him.

But Xan was known to the street gangs, and most knew better than to mess with him. The people who were getting ready to try and mug him suddenly recognised him and backed away hurriedly. News like Xan got around quickly. The last people who had attempted to attack him had seriously regretted it.

He moved swiftly through the streets. The Slums had fallen into even greater poverty since he had left. The buildings were shored up with sheets of metal that were covered in rust, rotting wooden beams, broken bricks and chunks of stone. There were skips filled with rubbish, overflowing, and piles of rubbish on the road sides. The people were mostly dressed in dirty or ragged clothes, looked half starved and many were suffering from diseases and injuries and couldn't pay for doctors or any kind of medicine. There were few jobs available for the people of the Slums, and the only kind was rough labour, the kind of jobs no one else wanted.

Xan kept his head down and hurried on his way. He hated coming here. He hated that he was no longer in a position to help anyone here.

He reached his destination. It was a tiny shack wedged between two large, mouldering building. The door was on crooked.

He knocked.

After a moment, the door opened a crack and a face peered out. 'Oh,' it said. 'It's you.'

He leant against the doorframe and treated the woman behind the door to a lazy smile. 'Can I come in?' he inquired.

The door closed. There was a rattling noise and then it was opened again.

'Get in,' she said in an unfriendly tone.

He stepped lightly inside. The door slammed and shook in its frame.

'How are you, Keisha?' he asked.

She gave him a filthy look and pushed past him in the narrow corridor. 'How do you think we are?' she shot over her shoulder.

'I don't know,' he said simply. 'That's why I asked.'

'You really care?' Keisha snapped. 'We don't see you here very often.'

'I'm busy trying not to get caught and executed,' he retorted, anger flashing across his face.

Keisha didn't reply. Silently, she led him through the building, down into the basement. 'He's here,' she announced unceremoniously. Giving him another dirty look, she walked out.

'You upset her,' a voice said.

Xan looked around. This room hadn't changed much since the last time he had been here. It was still filled with junk cleverly disguised as computers and scanners and tracking equipment. There was a woman sat in a chair, gazing intently at the main computer screen.

'I always seem to upset her,' he said dryly. 'I don't think she likes me very much.'

'No.' The woman swivelled her chair around and said, 'Well? Why are you here?'

'There was another escape today.'

'I heard.'

'People still aren't suspecting anything.'

'Incorrect, Excalda. I thought you were trained to report more accurately than that.'

His mouth twisted irritably. 'People just think it's some crazed psycho.' His grimace turned into a bleak smile. 'In some ways, that's pretty accurate. No one has any idea how deep this goes, Cat.'

Cat nodded absently. 'I know. Do you have any information I don't already know?'

'It's not as if I can help being a wanted man,' Xan said crossly. 'I do the best I can, Cat. You know that.'

'Do you have anything to tell me?'

'Yes. A man noticed something. He's – I've never seen him here before. Maybe he's a visitor. I can find out. There's a woman with him, too. I think he realised there was something – wrong – here.'

'Keep a check on them both.'

'He saw me.'

Cat frowned. 'He saw you?'

'That's what I just said, isn't it?'

She turned back to the screen. 'If he's a visitor, he won't know who you are and you're probably safe. If he does know who you are, then this will be over for you soon enough.'

'Thanks for your concern.'

Her voice softened slightly. 'This is a war, Xianfrith. You knew that when you signed up for this. You were aware you would probably die in the course of this. Don't complain now.'

'I'm not complaining,' he said mildly. 'I was wondering when you lost your regard for human life.'

'But you're not human, are you.'

He drew in a sharp breath and bit his lip, looking down at the floor.

Cat didn't look around. She clearly knew her comment had hurt, but she made no apology. 'If anyone can identify you, you're no use to us,' she said bluntly. There was a pause. 'Tell me the truth. Could he identify you?'

'Not by name.'

'That's not what I asked.'

He drew a deep breath. 'He doesn't know who I am, but he could certainly identify me and presence there today.'

'Thank you.' She didn't say anything else.

He waited until his usual patience deserted him. 'Do you have a mission for me?'

'No. At present, you're useless to us.'

Xan nodded. Nothing more than he had expected. 'Will I be of use to you again?'

'Maybe. We'll have to see.'

'Oh well, thanks,' he muttered.

'Be grateful you haven't been killed,' she said, her tone suddenly sharp. 'You know too much. By rights I should have you executed.'

Xan smiled. It was an ugly expression. 'You wouldn't. I'd go as far to say you couldn't.'

Cat didn't reply.

He sighed, the smile fading. 'I'll go. You know I won't reveal anything if I'm caught – but I'm not going forever. I'll carry on doing what I can.'

'You'll do nothing to jeopardise anyone else involved in the resistance,' she said curtly.

'Whatever,' he said in a low voice, and turned and walked out.


	6. Liana

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?**

**Chapter Summary: The Doctor and Rose finally meet Liana, and the Doctor gets the shock of his life. **

**Chapter Six: Liana**

'I'm bored,' Rose said.

'Huh?' The Doctor looked around, eyes wide and bemused. When her words finally sank in, he said, 'Oh, come on!' He held his arms out. 'Look! This is great! I could spend a fortune in here. If I had one.'

Rose shook her head, smiling. He was like a little kid in a sweetshop. Full of very complicated, expensive and scary looking sweets.

'The technology here is amazing,' the Doctor observed cheerfully, examining some large, strange looking contraption made of metal and plastic. 'This really reminds me of home.'

'Home?' Rose echoed uncertainly. The Doctor rarely mentioned anywhere he referred to as home; she still wasn't sure what his planet had been called, what it had been like. The few times she had ever asked he had changed the subject. And made it very clear he didn't want to talk about it. It happened every time she tried to find out more about him that he didn't willingly offer. He didn't ask her about her family and friends other than those he had met before. She recalled he had told her that he didn't do families. She had never quite dared to ask his previous incarnation but she had felt that this one was more – approachable. He wasn't. There seemed to be a wall, a wall of ice, that he built up around certain parts of himself, of his past and his people, and simply froze whenever anyone asked about them. He was her best friend, but she never dared push the subject.

He shrugged, smiling and looked across the room.

There was a woman stood directly opposite them. She was very beautiful, tall and slim and with very long, black hair. She was wearing a dark green dress and seemed to be the person in charge. The Doctor turned his head, glanced at her, and then stared.

'What is it?' Rose asked, a little worried by the expression on her face.

He ignored her. His gaze was fixed upon the woman and there was an expression on his face that Rose had never seen before. It was an expression of incredulity, astonishment, sudden hope and startling vulnerability. He was looking at the woman as if he could not quite dare to believe what he was seeing, as if he thought that he might simply be imagining it.

'Doctor?' Rose said, waving a hand in front of his eyes.

He knocked her arm aside, not even looking at her. He seemed to have forgotten that she was even there.

The woman who was the focus of his attention smiled at something someone had said to her, looked around saw the Doctor staring at her. She smiled, and then noticed that he was still looking at her, intently. A frown crossed her face and then her eyes widened in amazement. She crossed the room, ignoring the couple of people who tried to speak to her. She stopped a couple of feet away from the Doctor.

They looked at each other for several minutes. Gradually, the noise level in the room dropped as everyone continued about their business but still looking occasionally at the pair.

The Doctor spoke first. 'Are you – what I think you are?' he asked in a hoarse voice that was unlike his usual one.

'I think so,' she replied. Her voice was a little unsteady too. 'I had no idea – I never thought – '

'Neither did I,' he said softly.

She held out a hand. 'You are real, aren't you?'

He reached out and took hold of her hand. 'As real as you.'

Rose felt suddenly, terribly, alone and left out. The Doctor was ignoring her, he seemed to totally forgotten her existence. She had no idea who this woman was, why the two of them appeared to be so emotional.

The woman suddenly moved forwards and wrapped her arms around the Doctor. She was crying and Rose realised that he was struggling not to, as well.

'Who are you?' the woman asked, eventually, drying her eyes.

'Me? I'm the Doctor,' he said, stepping back. 'Who are you?'

'Lianalas,' she said. 'Most people here call me Liana, though. How did you get here? This place is supposed to be secure – I should know, I made it so that nothing could get through our defences, no teleportation device, nothing.'

He smiled, almost normally this time. 'My TARDIS. She goes where she wants, very little can stop me going where I want.'

'But of course,' Liana agreed. She also looked almost normal, although both she and the Doctor still looked slightly shell-shocked. 'Who is your friend? Human, I see.'

'What?' The Doctor looked around. 'Oh, this is Rose Tyler. She's my travelling companion.'

'It is very good to meet you,' Liana said, smiling.

'Yeah, whatever,' Rose said shortly.

Liana's smiled faded. 'Yes,' she said slowly. 'I have – things to see to,' she said quickly. 'We'll talk later?' she asked, with a surprising urgency. He nodded.

'Bye,' Rose said, a little rudely, as Liana walked away.

The Doctor looked annoyed. 'What was that for?' he demanded.

Rose scowled at him. 'What was all that staring and big sad eyes for?' she demanded straight back. 'You totally forgot about me! What was that about?'

He sighed. 'She's a Time Lord, Rose,' he said simply.

For a second she was lost for words. 'You mean – she's the same species as you?'

He nodded. He looked tired.

'I thought you said there weren't any left, that you were the last and you'd know if there were any others,' she said, bewildered.

'I thought I was the last,' he said shortly. 'So you'll understand why I might be a little shocked, right?' he added in a sharp tone, still looking annoyed. 'Think how you'd feel, Rose. I thought all my people were gone, everyone I knew and loved, my family and friends, all gone. Dust in the void. And now I've found another.' He met her eyes, his anger fading. 'Can't you understand that?'

She smiled weakly. 'I guess,' she said quietly.

He nodded. 'Come on. I want to look around. We should ask Liana if she knows anything about that distress call.'

Rose nodded, but she still looked a little upset and concerned.

_I know, this isn't a great chapter, but I wrote it during a REALLY busy time, so I didn't spend the time on it that I should have. Next one should be better._


	7. Getting To Know You

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?**

**Chapter Summary: The Doctor and Liana have a talk. Rose feels left out, wanders away and ends up in trouble. Again.**

**Chapter Seven: Information**

The Doctor didn't do much more looking around, Rose noted, a little sourly. He took a cursory look at one or two things and then found Liana, who looked more than a little pleased to be found.

Sensing that there was little room in the conversation or the Doctor's attention for her at this present moment, Rose decided to leave them to it. Feeling a little left-out, she muttered something to him about shopping, which he responded to with a quick nod, and then she took herself off again into Circle Three.

* * *

'I still can't believe this,' the Doctor said. He and Liana were stood sat inside one of the back rooms of the shop. It was large, spacious, and had the appearance of an office. Presumably, this was where Liana did all her business that wasn't conducted on the shop floor.

Liana smiled. 'You know, neither can I. Would you like a drink, Doctor?'

'I'd love one,' he said.

She rose. 'A moment, I'll bring some refreshments back.'

Whilst she was gone, the Doctor took an interested looked around. All the equipment was cutting edge technology, he noted with approval. Most was almost as good as what he might have built himself. The walls contained what looked like two massive windows, but the Doctor knew that they weren't. They were holo-panels, hologramatic screens that projected whatever scenery someone wanted to see. Currently, the screens were showing two views, one of a stunningly beautiful snowfield, the other showing the city scape outside of the building. The images even moved, showing creatures and machines shifting across the screen as if they were real, not computerised images, and there appeared to be real snow falling on the icy fields.

Everything in the office was neat and compact, everything perfectly organised and put away in its rightful place. The atmosphere here was rather different to the TARDIS, which generally trailed wires and pieces of metal and circuit boards. The Doctor had never been known for being obsessively tidy.

The door hummed as it opened and Liana returned, carrying a bottle of wine and two glasses.

'Well,' he said, examining the label as she handed him the bottle. 'This is one I've never heard of.' He unscrewed the top and said, 'A full glass?'

'Please,' she said, taking the glass once he had filled it. 'This is one of my favourite vintages, although one of the most expensive.'

He took a mouthful, raising his eyebrows. 'Mm. I can see why.' He set the glass down and looked at her. 'How did you survive the Time War?' he asked.

'I wasn't involved in the war,' she said. 'I was here. I decided to stay, there was no point going back to a planet that wasn't there anymore. I thought I was alone in the universe.' She shrugged. 'I was resigned to that fact. Then you come along.' She brushed her eyes quickly and said with a soft laugh, 'I'm sorry. It's – strange.'

'I know,' he said with a small smile. 'I just – ' He shook his head and laughed. 'I can't believe it. This is fantastic!'

Liana smiled and refilled his glass. 'So, what brings you here, Doctor?'

He raised an eyebrow. 'What makes you think I'm here for a specific reason?'

'I don't know. Maybe just the shopping?' she suggested.

'Well…' he said slowly. 'There is something…' Something was nagging in the back of his mind. 'It's a bit…strange. My friend and I were passing through – '

'Oh, yes, your little human friend,' Liana said. 'Human. What's a Time Lord doing travelling with a human, if you don't mind me asking?'

The Doctor frowned. 'She's my friend. I like travelling with people.' His frown melted into sadness. 'It's lonely, thinking you're the last of your species. Friends help you fill the void that leaves.'

Liana nodded in perfect understanding. 'Of course. I didn't mean to be – insulting. But tell me what brings you here. Maybe I can help.'

He drank the glass of wine down. 'You see,' he said in a thoughtful tone, 'we were on our way back to Rose's home, when we caught this distress signal. Coming from this city.'

'This city?' she said, smiling slightly.

'All right,' he admitted. 'This Circle.'

She looked surprised. 'This Circle?

He nodded.

'Odd. I hadn't noticed anything strange.' She frowned. 'Maybe it was a hidden signal…what do you think?'

'I don't know. I'd have to track down the source, and the person who sent the signal. Has anything strange been happening around here recently?'

'Yes,' she said slowly. 'There have been some strange things going on. People have been turning up dead, or close to death, mutilated and no one seems to know anything about it.'

'Do you?'

'No,' she said frankly. 'No, I don't, and I wish I did. But any inquires I've made have come up with nothing. Maybe you'll have more luck.'

'I usually do,' he agreed with an astounding lack of modesty. 'I'm sure you'll be willing to help? Two minds are better than one, especially minds like ours.'

Liana looked genuinely pleased. 'I'd be delighted to help, Doctor.'

* * *

Rose told herself she shouldn't be feeling jealous. It was stupid, and she knew it was stupid. After all, she couldn't expect him to throw aside the chance to talk to one of his own kind. Especially since he had told her himself that he was the last of his kind and now it turned out there was another one. She couldn't see him staying here, either, even if this Liana was another Time Lord. Although she could see him inviting Liana along with them…hopefully the other woman would decline…

She shook her head, trying to stop herself thinking such unfair thoughts. It was unfair to all of them. However, she couldn't help feeling bad and miserable and jealous.

The Doctor never looked at her like he had at Liana.

There was no reason why he should, because she wasn't another Time Lord. But she still felt just a little bit jealous.

She was pulled from her slightly self-pitying and depressed thoughts by someone bumping into her. She looked around sharply and saw two figures hurrying past quickly. One was tall, dressed in black, and the other was small, dressed in drab grey and was being literally dragged along by the other. Rose frowned, irritated, and glanced down at her sleeve where they had brushed against her.

There was a smear of blood on her sleeve.

Rose stared at it in astonishment for a moment and then headed after them. After travelling with the Doctor for so long, she wasn't going to do anything else. They had moved quickly, but there was a trail of blood drops for her to follow. The trail led her through the shops to a narrow space between two shops, hidden by a large display of green plants. The space led into an alley behind the shops, which was apparently used for storage and so on. Moving slowly and as quietly as she could, Rose crept through the alley until she heard voices. Ducking quickly behind some boxes, she peered through a gap and watched and listened intently.

To her astonishment, the man wearing black was the man she had talked to earlier that day. He had blood on his hands and face, and was crouched down in front of the figure he had been dragging through the centre. He looked worried.

'Tell me!' he said angrily, one hand gripping the other man's shoulder tightly, shaking him slightly. 'You have to tell me!'

The other man, slumped against the wall, mumbled something coherent, his head lolling to one side. There was a line of blood trailed down the side of his head, although Rose couldn't see his face. She could see the stains of blood on his clothes, however.

The blond man shook him harder. 'Tell me!' he snarled. 'Tell me, damn you! You have to tell me – '

The slumped man moaned softly in his throat and struggled weakly for a moment, then let out a long, rattling breath and was still.

The blond man spat something under his breath than Rose was willing to bet was probably unrepeatable, and straightened. He growled angrily and kicked savagely at a pile of boxes, causing them to crash and collapse onto the floor. He put his head in his hands for a moment, and then looked up.

'Why don't you stop spying on me and come out?' he said.


	8. You Don't Want To Mess With Him

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?**

**Chapter Summary: Rose is in trouble and finds out a little bit more about the mysterious man she and the Doctor saw.**

**Author's Note: Okay, so I was bored and posted up both chapters seven and eight today. I wrote them both at high speed, so forgive errors and spelling or inconsistency. I was also tired when I proof-read! Enjoy. You may have to wait a couple of days for chapter nine, though. I would like to thank everyone who has read and reviewed, reviews are greatly appreciated!**

**Chapter Eight: You Don't Want To Mess With Him**

Rose debated legging it, and then decided against it. She stood up slowly and came out from behind the boxes.

'You should probably know my friend will come looking for me if anything happens to me,' she said with more confidence than she felt at the moment. After all, how would the Doctor find her?

'Exactly,' he said.

She blinked. 'What?'

'You were thinking that you don't know if your friend would be able to find you,' he said.

'What makes you think that?'

'Deduction,' he said shortly. 'Why are you spying on me?'

'I didn't exactly intend to,' she said carefully.

He made a small sound of amusement. 'That's rubbish, and we both know it.' He shifted his coat aside, revealing a small gun holstered under his arm. 'I suggest you stop playing dumb and start answering questions.'

'Or what?' she demanded.

'Or you'll end up in more trouble than you realise.'

Rose smiled insolently. 'You really don't want to mess with my friend,' she warned.

The man smiled. 'Really? Maybe the two of you don't want to mess with me.'

Rose kept her eye on the gun. 'You seemed like a decent guy earlier. What changed?'

He shrugged. 'The weather.'

She frowned. 'What?'

He shook his head irritably. 'Stupid humans,' he muttered.

'You told me you were half human,' she pointed out, slightly insulted although frankly she had gotten worse insults from the Doctor.

'Fortunately, I didn't inherit the specie's chronic stupidity,' he said.

'Why are you here?' she asked him directly. 'I doubt whether you should be and being in presence of a dead body isn't exactly good, is it? How do I know you didn't kill him?'

'First, you saw I didn't – '

'I saw you shaking him.'

'And second, if I had killed him, you would be dead to stop you opening your big mouth and blabbering to everyone,' he finished.

'You dragged him in here, you were shaking him and shouting at him,' Rose said. 'I reckon you know something about why he's dead, even if you didn't kill him.'

'Right on the ball, aren't you?' he said irritably. 'Come here.' When she hesitated, he snapped, 'Just come here! Take a look at him!'

Reluctantly, but sure the Doctor would want to know all the details when she found him or he came and helped her out, she walked over cautiously. Looking down at the body, she gasped.

'You think I did that?' he asked harshly.

Slowly, she shook her head.

The corpse was even more badly mutilated than the first. Half his face was covered in blood from a horrific scalp wound that Rose had to turn her eyes from. Several of his fingers were literally missing, and there were several wounds visible under the tears in his clothing, wounds that looked as if they had been stitched up and then had torn.

She winced and looked away. 'What happened to him?'

'That's what I want to know,' he said shortly.

'How did no one notice that? When you were dragging him here?'

'It wasn't far from where I found him,' he said. 'I covered him up and dragged him here. I knew he didn't have long and I needed answers – '

'Didn't you even think of taking him to a hospital!' she demanded loudly, looking at him in horror. 'A doctor? Didn't you even think of helping him!'

'There was no time,' he said with obviously forced calm.

'No time! For what? For you to get your precious answers out of him? What kind of person are you?'

'No time for him to live,' he said patiently but angrily. 'He was dying, he would have been dead in minutes anyway and no hospital would try to save him.'

'What's that supposed to mean! Don't try and excuse yourself!'

'I have my reasons!' he snarled at her. 'Don't you go telling me what I should or shouldn't do because you do not live here, you don't know what this place is like and you don't know what goes on here! So save your sanctimonious lecture! If you lived here, if you were me, you wouldn't be so damned self-righteous!'

'There's nothing wrong in caring about people! And getting angry at people who let other people die!'

'Don't take the moral high-ground with me, stupid little human,' he spat. 'Not until you have some idea of what you're talking about!'

For a moment they glared at each other.

'Sorry to interrupt,' a voice said, 'but I have a few questions.'

The man spun, drawing the gun and levelling it at the Doctor who blinked in surprise at him.

'No need for that,' he said mildly.

Rose grinned. 'You took your time.'

'I was busy.'

'How did you find me?' Rose asked.

'Shopkeeper saw you wandering in this direction, I saw blood on the floor, it wasn't hard to work out what had happened after that,' the Doctor said cheerfully. He looked back at the blond man. 'There you are. I've been wanting to talk to you for a while.'

'Really,' the blond man said icily.

The Doctor nodded. 'Oh, yes.' He considered the man thoughtfully. 'And now I find you threatening me and my friend. Not a good way to start a friendship, I've found.'

'Who says I want to be your friend?'

'Trust me, you don't want to be my enemy,' the Doctor said quietly.

The man looked unfazed. 'And you don't want to be mine,' he said, equally serious.

The Doctor gave him a penetrating, intense look. 'What are you?' the Doctor inquired. 'You're not fully human, what are you? What species?'

'Human-Amraki hybrid,' the man said coolly.

The Doctor's eyes widened. 'Really?' He sounded astonished and fascinated. 'Not many of you around, are there?'

'No,' he said frostily.

'Yeah, because the Amraki race has a nasty tendency to kill all hybrids,' the Doctor said. 'They have a real issue with racial purity.'

'Oh, really?' the man said sarcastically. 'That might explain why the last Amraki I passed in the street spat at me, wouldn't it?'

'There's no need for that!' the Doctor said, pointing at him crossly. 'I'm not spitting at you, am I? Right, so be nice.'

The man blinked and looked rather startled to be spoken to as if he were about five years old.

'So, what are you skills?' the Doctor asked interestedly. He seemed to have forgotten that the man was holding a gun at them both. Rose rolled her eyes. Typical.

The man lifted an eyebrow.

_Since you seem to have some idea about my genetic heritage, you should know._

The Doctor gave a broad grin. 'Fantastic!' he exclaimed. 'I haven't met a part human, genuine telepath for ages! Can you read minds?'

'I don't like to,' he said flatly.

'What about other skills? What others do you have?'

'Do you mind?' he asked. He sounded annoyed. 'I don't the time or the inclination to answer your questions. You are in my way.'

'Are you sure about that?' the Doctor asked. 'Who you, anyway? I saw you when that unfortunate man died, why were you there? You didn't surprised by what had happened, that's what drew my attention to you. Why? You looked as if you had been expecting it.'

'He let that one die, too,' Rose said, pointing at the corpse.

'Did he, now?' the Doctor said, looking up at him with great interest. 'What's that important?'

'It wasn't exactly a choice I made,' the man said defensively. 'And it wasn't a choice I would have ever made, letting someone die.'

'Who are you?' the Doctor asked.

'Better for us all if you don't know,' the man said sharply.

'I don't think so. I might be able to help you.'

'You're assuming I want your help.'

'You mean you don't?'

'No.'

'Sure about that.'

'Yes.'

The Doctor shrugged. 'You might change your mind.'

'Maybe. Right now, your help is neither appreciated nor wanted.'

'I'm going to find out what's going on here, whether you want me to or not and whether you help us or not,' the Doctor said.

The man smiled grimly. 'Then you won't need me to tell you anything, will you?'

'We can help, if you're in trouble,' the Doctor said softly.

He lifted the gun. 'You can't help me. I don't want you to.'

'You can trust us,' the Doctor said, walking slowly towards him.

'No. I can't. I suggest you stop walking.'

'Why?' the Doctor asked. 'You're not going to shoot me, or you would have done so by now and we all know that. You won't shoot someone who isn't threatening you, will you?'

'No,' the man agreed. He holstered the gun as the Doctor got within a couple of paces of him. 'Doesn't mean I won't hurt you.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'Come on, there's no need for that.' He pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and raised it. 'We're just talking, aren't we? And don't think that you can hurt us – '

The man feinted a blow at him. The Doctor stepped backwards and received a swift kick in the stomach, enough to send him crashing to the floor.

'Doctor!' Rose yelled and sprinted forwards.

And found herself tripped and tumbling onto the floor.

The Doctor rolled over and scrambled to his feet.

The man took a massive leap into the air and grabbed hold of the wall some ten foot above them, although there was apparently no handholds, and without a look back, scaled the wall at a tremendous speed, quickly disappearing.

The Doctor looked angry for a moment. Then he said, 'Oh, well.' He frowned and rubbed his stomach. 'That hurt.' He looked upwards in the direction the man had disappeared in. 'Amraki hybrid,' he mused. 'That explains a lot.'

'Like how he disappeared up that wall?' Rose asked sourly. 'He just beat us and took off, Doctor! We need to find him!'

'We won't get any information out of him,' the Doctor replied with a sigh. 'And if he wants to give us any information, he'll come looking for us.' He looked around. 'Let's take a look at that body, Rose.'

'It's horrible,' she said as he crouched down beside the body and examined it. After a moment, she said, 'I thought you were talking to Liana.'

'I was. She got called out on business and I came looking for you.'

'Oh,' she said slowly. He didn't seem to notice.

'Similar to the other one,' he said. 'Body parts missing.' He shifted the body onto the floor and examined it closely. 'Scars, healing wound.' He poked it, frowning as he prodded the body with the sonic screwdriver. 'There entire parts of the body missing, entire organs. What the hell is going on here? There's bit of him missing! How takes one or two bits out of lots of different people? And lets them get away?'

'No idea,' Rose said, watching him.

He got up. 'Oh well, that's what we're going to find out,' he said, with what Rose considered to be inappropriate cheerfulness.


	9. Criminal Minds

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?**

**Chapter Summary: The Doctor spends more time with Liana and he and Rose try to find out exactly who Xan is and what he wants.**

**Chapter Nine: Criminal Minds**

'You've certainly got yourself into bigger trouble than you realise,' Liana observed. She sounded amused.

The Doctor gave her a swift grin. 'That's nothing new,' he said.

'Can you describe the man you saw?' she asked. 'I know most people of any consequence here, I might know who he is.'

The Doctor thought. 'Tall, short blond hair, dressed in black.'

'That describes half the human men on this planet,' she said.

'He had turquoise eyes and he was a human-Amraki hybrid,' the Doctor added.

'That narrows things down,' Liana said with a sigh. 'That's Xianfrith Excalda, former Commander of the security forces in Cyber City.'

'How can you be sure?' Rose asked suspiciously.

Liana waved a hand wearily. 'Xianfrith and I were – well, I didn't know him well enough to call him a friend but we were acquaintances. He was a good man. But things have changed.'

'How do you mean?' the Doctor asked curiously.

'He changed,' Liana said. She looked unhappy. 'You understand I'm only telling you this because I want to help, to get to the bottom of this? I dislike speaking of this. It was an unpleasant episode and not one I really wish to talk about.'

'Why?' Rose wanted to know. 'You said you weren't friends, why should it bother you?'

'Because it includes people who are my friends,' the Time Lord said sharply. 'I also had a great deal of respect for Commander Excalda, and like many people in this city I trusted him.' She looked away. 'People don't like to find out that those they have trusted are not in fact worthy of that trust.'

The Doctor gave Rose a warning look. She glared at him, but didn't say anything else.

'So?' the Doctor said gently. 'What happened?'

'There is an extensive black market,' Liana said. 'One branch deals specifically with buying and selling people.'

'Yeah?' Rose said slowly. 'You mean a slave trade?'

'Yes,' Liana said grimly. 'There is a great deal of interest in acquiring people who have certain skills in this society. People who have telepathic or telekinetic skills, for example. Such people can sell their services for a great deal of money, and other people can sell these individuals for high sums of money.'

'Was Xan involved in this trade?' the Doctor asked.

'This highly illegal trade,' she said. 'He was up to his neck in it, Doctor. He was sentenced to ten years in a prison mine in the western colonies of this planet. He escaped and returned to the city, I don't know why. Considering his skills, his contracts and his abilities, as well as his past record, it can't be for any good reason. There's a price on his head, a heavy one, dead or alive.'

'Shame we didn't know that before,' the Doctor said neutrally.

Liana frowned. 'I'm sorry. I didn't know you'd encounter him again – '

He waved his hand, dismissing this. He was more interested in what else she had to say. 'Why would he be wandering around now? Why risk being sent back to the prison mines?'

'Or executed,' Liana said grimly.

His eyebrows raised. 'Executed?'

'He is a dangerous criminal,' she said, as if the answer should be obvious.

The Doctor looked at the floor, his brow wrinkled in thought.

'What is a prison mine?' Rose asked slowly.

'They are resource mines,' Liana explained. 'Precious stones, ores, and so on. The governments sends criminals down into the mines rather than – '

'Than put other people at risk?' Rose said in a sharp tone.

'The death toll in the mines is very high,' Liana said after a pause.

'I bet it is,' Rose said.

The Doctor watched this exchange silently.

'Even criminals are people,' Rose said.

'I never said they weren't,' Liana replied.

'We're getting off subject,' the Doctor said mildly, as if he hadn't found the previous conversation remotely interesting. Rose shot him an irritated look which he studiously ignored. He turned instead to Liana. 'All right. What possible reason would this man have for coming back?'

'I have no idea,' she said promptly.

'You know that we came here because we were led by a distress signal,' the Doctor said. 'It came from this Circle. You don't have any idea about that?'

'None,' she said firmly.

He shrugged. 'All right. He knows something about these people dying. If he's a slave trader, why would he care? If he's a criminal, why would he risk getting caught coming back here and why get involved in a series of highly suspicious deaths?'

'Meaning?' Rose asked.

'He knew something. He was trying to find out what was going on. If he's a criminal, why would he be risking getting caught? Whatever is going on, it's important enough for him to risk getting caught, possibly killed.' He shook his head, looking annoyed. 'This is such a mess. What is going on around here?'

'If I knew that, I could help,' Liana said impatiently.

The Doctor looked up at her. 'You're a Time Lord,' he said flatly. 'What have you been doing about this?'

She looked taken aback. 'What?'

'You heard me. What have you been doing?'

Liana's eyes narrowed. 'This is an issue for the security forces on this planet. Not me. I survive here by not offending people, by keeping my head down and obeying the law. This is not my problem.'

'How often have those words been an excuse?' the Doctor snapped.

'I don't want to argue over this,' Liana said firmly. 'I'll help you as far as I can but please remember that, unlike you, I live here, and I have a business and a life and people depend upon me.'

The Doctor stared at her for a moment. Before he could say anything, there was a knock at the door.

Liana called, 'Come in!'

One of the shop assistants put her head around the door and said, 'I'm very sorry to interrupt, but there's a gentleman here to see you.' She looked very nervous.

'Send him in,' Liana said. She looked the Doctor. 'if you don't mind, this is a private meeting.'

'We don't,' the Doctor said with forced cheerfulness. He and Rose got up and walked out. A man walked past them, almost shoved past them. He ignored both of them, walked into the office and shut the door sharply.

The shop assistant looked after the man with an expression of mixed anger, dislike and fear.

'Something wrong?' the Doctor asked.

The girl began to walk away. 'Nothing,' she said shortly.

Rose gave him a warning look and said, 'You don't look very happy. What's wrong?' She gave a friendly, sympathetic smile.

'Well…I don't like him,' the girl said, gesturing towards the closed door and speaking in a low voice. 'He's a creepy man and I know who he is.'

'Who is he?' Rose asked. When the girl hesitated, she said, 'You can trust me.'

'He's a scientist, he's involved in genetic experimentation,' the girl said quietly. 'A lot of his experiments and his methods have been highly controversial. There have been a few scandals involving him and his research.'

'Like what?' Rose asked, curious.

'He's been rumoured to have been buying slaves for his experiments,' she said. 'And he's been linked to several slaving rings in this city, although nothing's been proved.'

Rose frowned. 'Wasn't there a commander involved in the slave trade?'

'Yes,' the girl said, looking puzzled and Rose was certain she saw a flash of anger cross the girl's face. 'This wasn't connected, though. But I don't like him.'

'Why's he here? He's friends with Liana?'

'I think he's one of her investors,' the girl said.

'All right, thank you,' Rose said and walked back over to the Doctor. 'He's a scientist,' she told him. 'Apparently involved in buying slaves and in genetic experimentation. The girl said that a lot of his work and research has been very controversial.'

'Interesting,' the Doctor said. 'Why's he here?'

'He's one of Liana's investors,' she said.

'Interesting,' the Doctor said again. 'Let's go outside.' They left the shop and found a bench. Sitting down, the Doctor said, 'So. What do we know so far?'

'Distress signal,' Rose said. 'It brought us here. Someone sent it.'

'Right. We don't know who, but we know it came from Liana's shop.'

'Dead bodies have been turning up, and the logical assumption is that that's what the distress signal was about,' Rose said.

'That Xan knows something about all of this, and he's either a criminal who's involved or he's a criminal trying to stop it or he's innocent and involved or innocent and trying to stop it.'

'Yeah,' Rose said, frowning slightly. 'One of the above. He knows something, but he's not talking.'

'And there are scientists in this city involved in genetic experimentation.'

'It's not a lot to go on, is it?' Rose said eventually.

'More than we usually get,' the Doctor said with a sigh. 'Let's face it, Liana isn't going to be able to help us very much. We need to think of another approach.'

'Great,' Rose muttered. 'You think I should try talking to the girl in the shop again?'

'That could help,' the Doctor agreed. 'She might know something else.'

'What about you? What are you going to do?' She waited a moment. He was frowning and she saw that he had taken the piece of psychic paper out of his pocket.

'Rose,' the Doctor said in a low voice.

'What?'

'I need you to do something for me,' he said. 'If Liana comes out of her meeting before I get back, I need you to keep her distracted about where I've gone.'

'Distracted?' Rose looked bemused and curious. 'Why?'

'I got a message,' he said, showing her the psychic paper. There was a message scrawled across it. _Meet me, Circle Seven Entrance._

'Who's it from?'

'I got a pretty good idea who,' he said. 'I want to meet him again, I want to see if he can shed any light on this affair.'

'I thought Liana told you everything you wanted to know,' Rose said, unable to keep the bite from her tone.

He either didn't notice or chose to ignore this. 'No one ever tells me everything I want to know. You should know this by now. I like to hear what everyone has to say. As much as I like Liana, she may not have told us everything. In fact, I doubt that she has.'


	10. Distorted

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?**

**Chapter Summary: The Doctor goes to meet with Xan. They talk and a few things are cleared up, or possibly not.**

**Chapter Ten: Distorted**

The designated meeting place was deserted. It was getting late, the sky darkening gradually and there was almost no one about. None of the people who were bothered the Doctor. He waited, with growing impatience, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet in a distracted manner.

'I thought you might not turn up.'

The Doctor looked around. 'How could I not? There are a few things I still want to ask you.'

Xan walked towards him. 'Do you really? I can't imagine what you'd want to ask me.'

'Why's that?' the Doctor asked.

Xan tucked his hands into his pockets. 'You've heard everything about me you need from Liana, haven't you?' he said blandly.

'See, one thing I've learnt in nine hundred years of space and time is that there's usually two sides to every story,' the Doctor said mildly. 'I'd like to hear your side.'

'Why should I tell you?'

'Because I'm willing to listen to you.'

Xan considered him silently. 'Liana was my friend, before all this,' he said. 'It's funny how things change, isn't it? Amazing how people believe all that crap about me. You know I was a slave?'

'No, I didn't,' the Doctor said.

Xan nodded. 'I was. See, I was born in Circle Seven. A hybrid, one that could pass as human as long as no one looked too closely. Until I got older and then everyone could tell. I look mostly human, it's just not quite and here, that's enough to give you away. Unlike you, Doctor. You can get away with looking exactly like a human, even if you aren't.'

The Doctor didn't reply.

'When I was fourteen I was working illegally for a computer technician and hacker, a great guy who didn't care I was a hybrid, he just wanted me to work for him because of my skills. At fifteen, I was caught by a slaver trader who specialised in selling people with my kind of talents on the black market. I got sold, tattooed as a slave, and forced to use my various skills in ways I really don't want to go into. Eventually, my owner got caught by the security forces and they were going to arrest me, too, until they realised that I was actually a slave. They took me in and eventually trained me. I got a life, a career, a reputation, friends and then I lost it all.'

'Why?' the Doctor asked.

'I saw something I wasn't supposed to,' Xan said simply.

'What did you see?'

Xan ignored the question. 'It was all gone. I found myself arrested and shunted into a prison mine without even a trial, no chance to defend myself. I escaped and came back and now I'm trying to stop what's happening.'

'What's happening?' the Doctor asked quietly.

'You want to go through what I have?' Xan demanded. 'If you know too much, then you will.'

'I won't,' the Doctor said.

'You sure about that?'

'Oh, yes,' the Doctor said grimly. 'I'm sorry for what's happened to you, Xan, and I can help.'

'You really think you can?' Xan said in disbelief. 'You really think that?'

'No, I know I can.' The Doctor sighed. 'This is what I do, Xan. I stop bad things happening. I give the monsters nightmares. If I see something wrong, it stops.'

'As simple as that?' the young man said with a grim smile.

'As simple as that.'

'All right,' Xan said slowly. 'It's not as if I have anything to lose, is it?'

'What do you know?' the Doctor asked.

For a while, the other man didn't say anything. 'There have been people turning up crippled and dead for some time,' he said eventually. 'For months, to be honest. It may have been going on longer than that. I was still in the security forces and I started looking around, seeing if I could find anything out. We got orders from above to leave the case alone, to make some show of trying to find the killer but not to try too hard, really. I ignored those orders and I conducted my own investigation.'

The Doctor almost smiled but stopped himself in time. 'What did you find?'

'To be honest, I don't know exactly what it is I found. I managed to find out that these maimed and crippled, dying people had escaped from somewhere in the city. I saw one before they died and tried to find out where they had escaped from. She told me that they were being experimented on, and gave me the coordinates to the location before she died. They weren't the correct coordinates, she was confused and terrified but I managed to narrow down the field to a small area. Unfortunately, before I could act upon the information, I was arrested on trumped up charges. I never found the exact place and I never found out who was behind it.'

'What were the experiments?'

'Genetic experiments,' Xan said.

The Doctor frowned. 'You're certain about that?'

'Definitely. She said that they were involved in both genetic experiments and building experiments. I wasn't sure what she meant, so I researched it – '

'Building?' the Doctor said. He looked horrified. 'As in building another species from scratch?'

Xan nodded. 'I think that's what she meant. Does that explain the missing body parts from the victims?'

'In some ways,' the Doctor said slowly. 'I suppose…adapting specific parts of the body rather than creating an entire physical being from nothing…less waste, less trouble, less expense. Seeing what works and what doesn't before you try creating a complete being.' He looked disgusted. 'Have there been a high number of disappearances in the city? Any indication that people are being taken off the streets to fuel these experiments?'

'My reasoning is that the people behind this are either using prisoners, or are simply taking people from places where their disappearances won't be noticed, like Circle Seven,' Xan said, then frowned. 'You believe me?'

'You couldn't make this stuff up,' the Doctor said, also frowning. 'Does anyone else know about this?'

'There's a whole network of people who know,' Xan said. 'I worked with them until a couple of days ago, when you turned up. Once they knew someone had seen me, would remember my face, connect me with what happened, I got kicked out.'

'Who are these people?'

'I don't really know. Most of them only went by code names, and none of us knew who the others really were.'

'So what have you manage to do so far?' the Doctor asked. 'As far as stopping these deaths goes?'

'Not much,' Xan admitted. 'We try to make sure they can't be covered up, taking footage of any deaths or incidents we think might be connected, transmitting them across the city, investigating disappearances and making sure that the public knows about anything going on. We've tried hacking into various computers and databases to try and find anything information that might be available, but we've come up with almost nothing.'

'Do you think you can find out where this place the woman mentioned is?'

'If I had access to a computer,' Xan said. 'I could hack in and get at the electronic maps of the city, then it's a matter of pin-pointing the most likely locations within the given coordinates.'

'Right,' the Doctor said. 'I can get you access to a computer and I can give you a safe place to stay.'

Xan folded his arms. 'Why would do this? Why would you bother helping me?'

'Why insult me by asking that?' the Doctor said irritably. 'I believe you. And I believe that this should stop. That's all the reason I need.'

'You think you can keep me safe?' Xan said warily.

'I know I can.' The Doctor beckoned for him to follow. 'It's just getting there that's going to be tricky, right?' He paused as Xan hesitated. 'You're worried about whether you can trust me? If you want to know if you can trust me, read my mind. I know it's a huge breach of etiquette, but you have my permission.'

Xan paused, then closed his eyes, frowning slightly in concentration. The Doctor felt a very slight push on his thoughts, the very slightest and would never have noticed it if he hadn't known what to expect of someone reading his mind. The telepathy brushed swiftly across his mind, instantly coming across the thoughts referring to this issue.

Xan opened his eyes. 'All right,' he said. 'I can trust you.'

Despite himself, the Doctor was impressed. The younger man had unerringly found the thoughts he was looking for, had read them and gone without even touching any other thoughts in the Doctor's head. That took skilful telepathy.

'It's a big blue box,' Xan said, regarding the TARDIS with a sceptical eye. 'You expect me to hide inside a big blue box? What is a police call box, anyway?'

'Don't you know your twentieth century history?' the Doctor asked, unlocking it.

'Yes, but blue boxes were never mentioned,' Xan said, frowning.

The Doctor grinned, opened the door and said, 'Pray, enter.'

Xan gave him a suspicious look and stepped in through the door. 'Wow,' he said eventually.

'This is my ship,' the Doctor said, looking proud.

Enlightenment dawned on Xan's face. 'Chameleon circuit,' he said, a pleased smile flickering across his face.

The Doctor looked delighted. 'Yes. The circuit got stuck a few years back. I like the shape so I never bothered to fix it.'

'Fair enough.' Xan looked around, clearly impressed. 'This is incredible technology. I mean, I'm not massively into technology but I am seriously impressed. Did you build this?'

'No,' the Doctor said. 'I – acquired her a long time ago. But I've made all kinds of modifications,' he added with appropriate pride. 'Anyway, I have to go before anyone misses me. Here's a computer,' he said, taking out the one he had stolen earlier and handing it over. 'And you'll be safe in here. No army can get inside, not if I don't want them to and believe me, several have tried. Make yourself at home, don't poke through anyone's belongings, don't go wandering off because it's easy to get lost in here. Right?'

Xan nodded. 'Thank you,' he said sincerely.

The Doctor gave him a look that wiped the grateful smile off of his face. 'This is my ship,' he said grimly. 'You won't be able to fly her, you won't be able to do anything. You try sabotaging her, you try to do fly her, you damage anything here, you'll regret it because I will make you regret it. Understand? I am trusting you with my home. Remember that. I don't let just anyone inside this ship, let alone use her computer and I'm only letting you because I want to stop whatever is going on as much as you do and I don't like seeing innocent people hurt. Remember that I am trusting and if you betray that trust, I will make you more sorry than you have ever been before.'

Xan didn't reply for a minute. Then he said softly, 'I won't do anything to damage your ship, Doctor.'

'Good,' the Doctor said shortly. Then he left.


	11. Cat

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?**

**Chapter Summany: Rose talks to a woman who works for Liana and discovers who sent the distress signal.**

**Chapter Eleven: Cat**

Rose went back inside the shop. The girl she had been talking to was busying herself doing something with a few silver boxes on display. Rose had no idea what they were or what they did and the girl looked as if she was just making work for herself.

'Hi,' Rose said, going over and giving her a friendly smile. 'Mind if I talk to you?'

'Suppose not,' the girl said. She was giving Rose a wary look, as if thinking that maybe she had said too much before.

'Is there anything else you can tell me about the deaths?' Rose asked. 'And this scientist, can you tell me anything else about him?'

'No,' the girl said shortly.

Rose sighed. 'Look, I'm not going to try and get you into trouble,' she said persuasively. 'I want to help. That's what me and the Doctor do. We help people. I'm Rose, by the way.'

'Cat,' the girl said, after a moment's hesitation.

'Well? Can you tell me anything? I want to help, but I can't if I don't know what's happening.'

'I don't think I should be talking to you,' Cat said. 'We've lost people who knew too much.'

'It won't stop if you don't let someone help.'

'And that someone would be you, would it?' Cat asked nastily. 'Thanks but no thanks. I got enough problems without you adding to them.'

'Look, we came here specifically to help!' Rose protested. 'We followed a distress signal!'

Cat gave her an incredulous look. 'Oh, damn,' she said.

'What? Damn what?'

Cat leant against the wall. 'There's a team of people here who are fighting back against what's going on,' she said. 'Some of them decided to set a distress signal. From here. I was against it, but the vote was against me. So I set it and it turns out I was right. It wouldn't do any good at all.'

Rose was momentarily reduced to an insulted silence.

'I don't like Liana or any of her scientist friends and I don't want to talk to you anymore. Goodbye.'

'Wait, Cat!' Rose exclaimed, hurrying after her as the girl stalked away. Her way was blocked by Liana, who suddenly appeared beside her. 'Oh, you're back!' Rose exclaimed with a big smile. 'That was quick!'

Liana gave her a puzzled look and said, 'Where's the Doctor?'

'The Doctor?' Rose said, looking bemused.

'Yes. Where is he?'

'Um…' Rose racked her brains for an excuse, beginning to think that maybe her time would have been better spent trying to think up an excuse to explain the Doctor's absence rather than trying to get information out of Cat.

'Looking for me?' the Doctor said, strolling in. He was wearing a great big happy grin that Rose associated with trouble. His hands were in his pockets.

'Yes,' Liana said, turning to him and forgetting about Rose. 'Where were you?'

'Ohhh…I was wandering about outside,' he said. 'Needed some air, you know.'

'I didn't see you when I came in.'

'Nah, you just missed me. I came in when I saw you.'

'Oh.' Liana paused and then said, 'I came back for a couple of things. I have to go to a business meeting now.' She waved a hand. 'All about shares, stock and so on. Some very boring but very necessary thing, I suppose. I'll see you later.' She paused again and smiled sweetly. 'Maybe you'll join me for dinner?'

'But of course,' the Doctor said, returning the smile. Behind Liana, Rose rolled her eyes.

Liana gave him another smile and then walked out, back to her office. She reappeared, still smiling at him and finally left again.

'I think she fancies you,' Rose said to him.

He ignored the comment. 'You almost screwed up there, didn't you think about an excuse for why I was gone?'

'I was busy.'

'Really?'

'I found something out!' Rose said.

'So did I,' the Doctor said. 'You remember that guy we bumped into?'

'The freaky guy who practically ran up the wall?'

'Yeah, that one.'

'He was weird. Good-looking, but weird.'

'That's really not the point, Rose,' the Doctor said patiently. 'The point is that I spoke to him just now and he's going to get some information for us.'

'Yeah? Where is he?'

He sniffed. 'In the TARDIS.'

Rose stared at him. 'You put him in the TARDIS?'

'Something wrong with that?'

'No, it's just not like you to let just anyone in the TARDIS.'

'He needed somewhere safe to stay,' the Doctor said, as if that should have been obvious.

She considered this. 'Fair enough.' She stopped, looked aruond, and said, 'Where's Cat?'

He blinked. 'Who?'

'The girl I was talking to. She's gone.'

'Why is that important?'

'She knew something about all this stuff that's been going on,' Rose said patiently. 'I was going to try and persuade you to persuade her to tell us more and now she's gone!'

'You probably frightened her,' he said.

'No, you probably did that.'

'Thanks!' He looked around, hands in his pockets. 'Right. Liana's gone out, so let's go and find Xan and see if he's found anything out.'

'You haven't told Liana much, have you?' Rose said to him curiously.

'No. No, I haven't,' he said and didn't elaborate further.

Rose pushed the subject. 'Why not?'

'She hasn't been totally honest with us,' he said slowly. 'It's just – let's keep all of this between us at the moment, shall we?'

'Us? Does that include this Xan guy?'

He shrugged. 'If he knows something, he knows something. So let's go find out if he knows anymore than he did last time I spoke to him.'

Rose frowned. 'I think I understood all of that.'

He gave her a bright smile. 'Good!'

* * *

It had taken Cat a long time to find out where the location of the secret experiment base was. Now that no one would miss her, and she knew it, she was going to go and find as much proof of what was going on as she could find.

Inside the building was dark. She could barely make her way along silently, but manage it she did. Her night vision was good and she crept through the building like the animal that was her name sake.

She had found the base because she had been tracking and trailing one of the scientists who she knew was involved. Now, she had finally had the chance to follow him and find out exactly where the base was.

Finding her way in hadn't been too difficult. She was a good climber and her knowledge of electrical equipment had aided her in disarming the alarms and then getting inside had been extremly easy.

But Cat didn't get a chance to go and find the experiments, find the rooms where they had been going on because she was forced to hide.

There were footsteps coming along the corridor towards where she had hidden. She ducked quickly and quietly behind some pipes and hid in the darkness. With the footsteps came two voices. They were loud, arguing.

'Your experiments have escaped. A lot of them have escaped.'

'If you gave me more funds, I could afford to keep them under proper control.'

'What? You have more than enough to employ people to guard – '

'Hardly. You know we can't risk being found out, and people talk.'

'Pay them to keep their mouths shut.'

'There's no amount of money in the universe that will keep anyone's mouth shut.'

'We're still risking being found out, aren't we?' The voice was getting angry. 'In fact, we're all but found out!'

'People think it's a serial killer. My research should not take much longer, I am sure of that.'

'You've been sure of that for months.'

'You'd like to try genetic experimentation? You? A man who can't bake a cake?'

'What does cake have to do with anything?'

'It's called a metaphor,' this voice said wearily.

'I don't care what it's called. How close are we to ending this?'

'We're not.'

'Wonderful,' this voice said dryly. 'Then we'll just have to move bases – '

'We can't do that without attracting suspicion.'

'Then you need to keep better control of things.'

'Then you need to give me more money.'

Cat was getting painfully uncomfortable in her hiding position. Slowly, she tried to stretch her leg to relax it a little, to get the feeling back into it.

She knocked the pipe. It was hollow and the sound reverberated.

'What was that?'

'Someone's here. Someone's overheard.'

Cat had frozen in terror. She tried to clamber out of her hiding place and run, but her numb leg prevented her from moving properly.

'Get her!' one of the voice yelled furiously.

Cat ran, until a bullet took her in the back and brought her down.

* * *

Apologies for how bad this chapter is. I have been seriously busy and haven't had time to write it well. So sorry for the poor quality of this chapter and probably the next couple. 


	12. Falling Into Place

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?**

**Chapter Summary: Xan gives the Doctor the location and the three of them go there. They receive a very nasty shock when they find it.**

**Okay, I know this is a really bad chapter. I have an excuse, I've been really busy and ill this week. Anyway, I wanted to get to the end of this chapter so as I can post up the last chapters which I have already written…because I rarely write in chronological order…**

**Chapter Twelve: Falling Into Place**

'She's dead.' The Doctor looked up at Rose. 'I'm sorry.'

'She was shot,' Xan said flatly.

'She knew something so they killed her,' Rose said quietly. 'How could they?'

The Doctor sighed. 'You know the answer to that,' he said gently, touching her shoulder comfortingly. 'Come on. Let's go stop them.'

Rose didn't move. She was staring down at the young woman crumpled on the floor. Whoever had killed her had simply tossed her on the floor, hadn't even bothered to try and hide her body. Just left her, like she was a piece of worthless rubbish.

'Who did this?' she whispered.

Gently, the Doctor drew her to her feet and said softly, 'We'll find them, Rose.'

'Then let's hurry up and do so,' Xan said irritably.

'Shh!' the Doctor snapped.

Xan gestured around the huge room. 'There's no one here.'

They both stared at him.

He scowled back, suddenly slightly embarrassed. 'Telepathic, remember?' he muttered sheepishly.

'Show us the way, then,' the Doctor said.

'It's through here.' Xan gestured that they follow him and started up a narrow flight of stairs, spiralling upwards, made out of rusty metal. He moved far quieter than the other two; in fact, if they hadn't been able to see him, neither of them would be known he was there, he moved so silently.

'I'm not sure this is a good idea,' Rose whispered.

The Doctor didn't reply for a moment, and then said, 'What choice do we have?'

'I know, we don't. I'm just saying – '

'I'm sure we could deal with him,' he said. 'If we had to.'

Rose pulled a face, which of course the Doctor couldn't see. 'Right. Oh yes, we could definitely deal with him. Are you crazy?'

'I was trying to remind you we've dealt with worse,' the Doctor replied quite calmly.

'True, but Doctor, he's fast and he's telepathic – '

'I've dealt with telepaths before and people who are fast.'

Rose sighed irritably through her teeth. 'You know the point I'm trying to make.'

'Rose, how do we normally deal with things?'

'Well…' She considered. 'Usually by charing in head-long and running around shouting and making it up as we go along.'

'Right. And that method has not failed us yet, has it?'

'No.'

He turned his head and smiled at her over his shoulder. 'There you are, then.'

She returned the smile.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Xan had obviously been waiting for them to catch up. 'Finished talking about me?' he inquired.

The Doctor folded his arms. 'Anyone tell you it's rude to simply listen into other people's thoughts?'

Xan gave a one-shouldered shrug. 'I can't help it. It's not as if I choose to hear what people are thinking. Unfortunately, I appear to have lost the ability to 'hear' only what I want and when.'

'How do you lose that ability?' the Doctor said, confused. 'Granted, when someone begins using a strong natural telepathic ability it can be tricky – '

'I don't really want to talk about it,' Xan said, rather shortly. 'Come on. I suggest we be a little quieter now. There's someone in this area of the building. Not too close, but not far enough away for my liking. The labatories are this way.'

'Labatories?' Rose said sharply.

Xan nodded, his expression hardening. 'Come on,' he said again.

They followed him. It was amazing, Rose thought, that he seemed to know his way perfectly around the labyrinth of rooms, stairs and doors so perfectly he clearly was not going to get lost. She had already lost her sense of direction. Maybe the Doctor would find it easier to navigate his way around this place than she did. After all, he navigated his way across time and space, even if he did occasionally get it wrong – '

There was a crash and a large shape lunged out of the shadows. It was human shaped, covered in shadows so no one could see exactly what it was, and it moved like a snake.

The Doctor grabbed Rose and hauled her backwards, out of its way, and they saw it. It was a man, very big, heavily muscled, with half his face missing. It wasn't bleeding, simply a mess of raw flesh with the skin simply stripped away. He snarled, one eye staring sightlessly at them whilst the other rolled crazily in the socket. His mouth was filled with broken teeth, dripping saliva and blood where the fangs sliced his lips open.

'Oh, crap,' Rose said.

'Move!' Xan yelled at them both. The monster man half-turned at the sound and was met by Xan's fist coming the other way. Despite the fact that the man was a lot bigger than Xan, the blow rocked him back on his feet. He roared in pain and lashed out furiously. Xan ducked easily and returned with two sharp, stunning blows, one to the man's stomach and the other to his face. These blows didn't quite drop the monster, but sent him staggering back in obvious pain.

'I suggest you move,' Xan said calmly. He stepped forwards, waiting for the man to get up. The Doctor pulled Rose further back, although the man had apparently forgotten about them. He was staring at Xan, his single eyes fixed on the hybrid with an expression of senseless loathing and bloodthirst.

He lunged.

Xan side-stepped neatly, turning slightly as the man rushed past him and moved to trip him. The man crashed to the ground with a howl of pain as he went headlong into a metal wall. He whirled and raced forwards then stumbled to a stop.

Xan had gone.

Even the Doctor hadn't seen where he had gone. One moment the young man had been there, the next he had gone. The massive man started around in confused astonishment, his breathing loud and ragged. He growled, a totally inhuman sound and finally remembered the other two creatures. He turned towards them and leapt for them.

Xan simply appeared out of shadows, now armed with a length of metal pipe. He swung, throwing his entire weight behind the blow, and aimed with deadly accuracy.

The end of the pipe buried itself in the giant man's head with a sickening cracking sound. Blood ran down his face. He stopped sharply, swayed, and crashed to the ground.

He lay still.

Xan stepped back, still holding the pipe tightly in one hand.

'I don't think you need that anymore,' the Doctor said, rather coldly, to him.

Xan's eyes narrowed. 'I'm sorry? You had a better way of dealing with that situation?'

The Doctor simply looked at him. 'Where were you taught that violence is the only solution, Xianfrith?'

Xan met the Doctor's hard stare with his own. 'When I'm fighting for my life.'

'Don't tell me you were fighting for your life – '

'No, I killed him to save yours and hers,' Xan retorted. 'See, I could have made it away from him, no problem, but you two – you're too slow. He'd have caught you. And you're going to tell me you would have done any different?' He gestured at the fallen body. 'Look at him. He's been turned into something like a dog – abuse it long enough and it'll bite anyone. No reason, no rationality, just survival because everything is out to hurt or kill you. I'm sorry I had to kill him and I wish I hadn't had to. Happy?' The last word was said with bitterness.

'No,' the Doctor said, but his tone had softened. 'All right, Xan. I think we understand each other – '

'No one understood him,' Rose said, nodding towards the man. 'What happened to him?'

'I don't pretend to know,' Xan said. 'Maybe you do, Doctor.'

The Doctor crouched down and examined the body silently, then he straightened with an expression on his face that Rose recognised as meaning trouble for someone. The kind of trouble that ends up with slime on the carpet.

'This way,' Xan said. 'The laboratery is just this way.'

The lab turned out to be a dingy little room filled with glass pods. They were large, oval shaped-chambers set into the walls, the doors made of dark, dirty glass. Rose shivered; they were remarkably similar to the pods that had housed the humans in the hospital on New Earth. Even though she hadn't been in control of her body at the time, she recalled the little disease chambers and she wondered uneasily if this was the same kind of thing.

The Doctor gasped. Rose turned and saw all the colour drained from his face. He was holding his head, eyes closed in pain or maybe horror.

'What's wrong?' she asked, concerning, hurrying over.

'You mean you don't know?' he gritted between his teeth. 'You really can't feel it – how can you not?' He cried out angrily in pain. 'Stupid humans – can't feel anything, must be like living inside a bubble – '

'Don't be offended,' Rose said to Xan who watched silently. 'He tends to be rude about other species when he's under pressure – '

'I'm not human,' Xan said mildly.

The Doctor straightened and glowered around the room. 'What has happened here?' he demanded in a furious voice. 'Can't any of you feel it? Something terrible, something horrific, has been happening here. There's death, there's darkness, there's sheer terror – '

'We know,' Xan said. 'Something terrible. Why do you think I brought you here?'

'What was going on here?' Rose demanded.

The Doctor strode to a pod, wrenched it open and a body crumbled out. It was obviously human, but had been ripped apart in places. There were massive holes in the remains of the flesh and it looked as if parts of the body had simply been torn out. He looked around. There were other pods that had clearly been broken open from the inside.

'This is a badly built and maintained facility,' Xan said. 'No wonder some were able to escape.'

'This is a building lab,' the Doctor said, running his eyes over equipment on the tables and on the shelves, examining wiring on the pods and the remains of bodies in the other pods. He was animated, running and scuttling around the room, but it was the kind of engery that is caused by sheer fury and would eventually explode.

'Building?' Rose said quietly.

'Building species. Someone has been dismantling human bodies, hybrid bodies, other alien bodies, but all humanoid. They've been taking bits of them – you can see from the state of these remains. Only bits of them, and my guess is, from everything that's in here, someone has been trying to build another species.' He looked disgusted, angry and very sad.

'What are we going to do? Find out who it is?'

'We're going to shut this place down, then we're going to try and figure out who has been doing this,' the Doctor said harshly.

'How are we going to shut it down?'

The Doctor tossed the sonic screwdriver. 'Xan, I reckon you could probably find the main power source for this building, couldn't you?'

'Yes, give me some time and I'll find it,' he said.

'Good. Rose, you got with him and use the sonic screwdriver to do whatever you can to screw up the main power source and stop it working. That should switch all the power off.'

'Won't that shut down the pods?' Xan asked.

'Will that kill anyone alive?' Rose added.

'Places like this usually have a generator, right?' the Doctor said.

Xan nodded in understanding. 'The generators are emergency power – they'll keep the life-support in the pods going.'

'But will make sure that no one can use the other, dangerous equipment in this building,' the Doctor finished.

'What are you going to do?' Rose asked.

'I'm going to see if I can find anyone still alive and see if I can do anything for them,' the Doctor said.

Rose and Xan disappeared. The Doctor heard them clatter off down the stairs. Or rather, he heard Rose's footsteps and Xan's voice as they faded away. He took another look around and then set to seeing if there was anyone he could help. Most of the victims in the pods were either dead or heavily sedated. There was nothing he could do for them until the authorities were informed, and if he did help, he could run the risk of harming them further.

'I'm sorry I can't help you all now,' he said aloud in the silent room. 'But I promise I'll make sure someone comes who can help you.'

Then he set to dismantling the equipment, to make sure no one could use it again. Although he didn't have the sonic screwdriver, he found a hammer and set about simply destroying it. He was unaware of how much time had passed when, finally, the lights in the building dimmed. The main power had been shut off.

He smiled.

Then he heard the soft sound of footsteps.

'Well,' a voice said behind him. 'I must congratulate you on finding me out.'


	13. This Will End

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?**

**Chapter Summary: The Doctor discovers who is behind everything that has been going on and deals with it in true Doctor style.**

**Chapter Thirteen: This Will End**

The Doctor turned around. 'You know, I really didn't think it would be you,' he said calmly. 'Or maybe I just hoped that it wouldn't be.'

Liana gave him a smooth smile. 'I'm impressed you found me out. You were blundering along so blindly.'

'Ah, well, that's the way I work,' he said, tapping a foot on the floor.

'I thought I had got away with it.'

'Can't hide things like this forever,' he replied. 'Certainly not from a brain like mine.'

'Aren't you confident in your abilities?' she mocked.

He raised his eyebrows. 'As old as I am, I know exactly how good I am. Why pretend I'm not?'

'I'm not intimidated.'

'Good!' he exclaimed. 'That's good. But…you really should be.' He strolled across the floor. 'What exactly are you doing here?' he asked curiously.

'You don't know that?'

'That's why I asked.'

Liana smiled. 'I was rebuilding our species,' she said smoothly. She reached out and carefully brushed invisible dust off of the front of his suit and started to fix his tie which had come loose. 'From other creatures,' she added. 'Using my own biological structure as a template, I experimented and adjusted, trying to – '

'Create your own race of Time Lords,' he said, his tone neutral.

'Yes,' she agreed. 'Think of it, Doctor! We needn't be the last Time Lords! We could begin our race again, we could rebuild them! We could mend history again, we could mend the damage of the Time Wars!'

'You're using other creatures,' the Doctor said softly, stepping back, away from her. He looked disgusted. 'Against their will, you're taking them and butchering them and stealing all the best bits – '

'I don't have to,' Liana cut him off. Her smile was wide and arch. 'Now you're here I don't have to go about rebuilding the Time Lords in that laborious, tedious way.'

The Doctor opened his mouth to reply and then thought better of it. 'I don't think so,' he said as lightly as possible.

Liana's eyes narrowed. 'Why?'

'Um – don't take this the wrong way,' he said carefully, 'but – at the risk of causing offence – you're a raving lunatic.'

The other Time Lord regarded him silently. 'You're very rude,' she said eventually.

'But truthful,' he pointed out, grinning. 'And not ginger,' he added in an undertone, as an afterthought.

The slap wiped the smile off of his face.

'Ow,' he said, rubbing his face. 'Was that really necessary?'

'No,' Liana said calmly. 'But I felt like letting you know my feelings before I kill you.'

'Kill me? I won't be much use to you dead,' he pointed out reasonably.

Her smile was nasty. 'I can still use your DNA,' she said calmly.

'Well, how about I just leave now,' he said, backing away. He wondered if Xan had any idea that the three of them were no longer alone. Obviously, Liana had arrived after Xan and Rose had gone and she was out of range of Xan's telepathy. He hoped that Rose was all right.

'You're not going anywhere,' Liana snapped.

'You can't stop me,' the Doctor said.

'Are you willing to put that to the test?' the other Time Lord asked smoothly. Her eyes shimmered and her grin was nasty.

The Doctor backed slowly away. 'You don't want to fight me, Liana,' he said in a soft tone, menacing and deadly.

'No?' she asked. 'Why, Doctor, you're no match for me.'

'You're willing to bet on that?' he said, his face a carving in ice.

'Yes,' she said slowly, deliberately. 'I am.'

The Doctor bounced up and down on the balls of his feet and looked down at the floor. He looked up. 'Do you know how many I've fought over the centuries?' he asked in a conversational tone.

Liana tilted her head back but didn't answer.

'I've lost count, to be honest,' he continued. 'Daleks, Cybermen, Slitheen, Ice Warriors, a hundred others. More, even. I've fought them all and I've defeated them all. I've fought and destroyed renegade Time Lords. Like yourself.' His voice rose menacingly. 'Do not underestimate me.'

The other Time Lord smiled. 'You're a warrior, aren't you Doctor? Our people were never warriors. Is that why you fought in the war? I saw it in your eyes when we spoke of the Time War. Was it because you are a fighter at heart? A survivor, perhaps? Our people were peaceful. You are not.'

'I was once,' the Doctor replied softly. 'No more.'

'Oh, scary,' she sneered.

'I am telling you that this will end,' he said coldly.

'You can't make me stop.'

'You lied about Xianfrith, didn't you?' the Doctor said conversationally. 'You said he was involved in illegal slave trading, but he wasn't, was he? He stumbled onto your secret and you decided to get rid of him.'

'What makes you think that?'

'He told me you were friends, once. You said that you barely knew each other. He had no reason to lie, did he? You came up with the trumped up charges against him, didn't you?'

'Xianfrith was in my way.'

'You were friends.'

'So? I don't let friendship stand in my way.'

'He trusted you.'

'Of cource he did. Xianfrith would never betray anyone, he doesn't understand the concept of treachery. It's easy to use someone who, however well experienced he may be in what terrible things people will do to each other, cannot quite believe that his friends would ever betray him.'

'And here was me wondering if he was in on this,' the Doctor said. 'But you've all but told me he had nothing to do with this, except trying to stop it.'

'So you're handsome and clever,' Liana observed sweetly.

'Oh, save it,' he snapped. 'I'm not interested in flirting with you, or anything else with you. My point is that you're a liar, a criminal, a lunatic and a lot of other things. You also let an innocent man go to the prison mines to keep a secret that you, frankly, haven't been particularly good at keeping your actions secret.'

She scowled.

'You see, I've spent a lot of time with humans,' he continued. 'A stupid little species at times, although they can be endearing. They have their good points, even if they can't see what's right in front of them half the time. But there's one thing humans are. They're resourceful. And if there's one thing that they're good at, it's surviving. You didn't realise how resourceful humans are, did you? That's how they managed to escape you. And you don't have the resources to keep them in prison, right? It's just you doing this experiment, a few big-wigs giving you the funds, but all that's going on renting the rooms and buying the parts and the equipment. You can't afford to hire guards and you certainly can't afford for them to leak that information out.'

'True,' she admitted. 'It's top secret. Which is why you're going to have to die.'

'Am I really?' he asked in tones of great interest. 'Maybe I've spend too much time with humans. I'm very resourceful myself. Very resourceful and frankly, I'm probably the cleverest person in this room. Cos, well, you're really quite stupid.'

'Am I really? How come?' she said with a smirk.

'Because you assumed I came alone,' the Doctor said.

Liana frowned and then collapsed onto the ground as a chunk of metal smacked her solidly across the head.

'Not very observant, is she?' Xan commented, lowering the metal pipe.

'It's the gloating,' the Doctor said, looking down at her. 'Gets them every time.'

'Are we just going to leave her here?' Rose asked. 'Is she dead?'

'Not yet,' Xan said regretfully.

'No,' the Doctor said with forced cheerfulness.

'I can soon remedy that.'

'We'll just hand her over to the authorities and then be on our merry way.'

'Or we could tie her up and leave her here,' Xan said. When the other two both turned and stared at him, he said irritably, 'I spend six months in a prison mine, and then months on the run from the law in fear of my life because of her. Believe, I'm restraining myself.'

The Doctor considered. 'Nah,' he said. 'She might escape.'

'That depends,' Xan said.

'On what?' Rose asked.

'On how many pieces she's in when we tie her up,' he said grimly.

'Stop it,' the Doctor said, rather sharply. 'You don't need to stoop to her level.'

'Or we could sell her in pieces for scientific research. That has a certain poetic justice to it.'

'Enough with turning her into a jigsaw,' Rose told him. 'Let's just tie her up and take her to the police, or security, or whatever. Then we can leave.'


	14. Back To The Stars

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?**

**Chapter Summary: Epilogue. Tying up loose ends.**

**Chapter Fourteen: Back To The Stars**

'How are you?' Rose asked quietly.

The Doctor was stood over the console of the TARDIS, his head bowed and his expression incredibly sad. He looked up at the sound of her voice and gave her a weak smile. 'Not good,' he said after a moment and with a heavy sigh. 'But I'll get better.' His smile widened into a heart-breakingly brave one. 'Been through a lot, me. I'm sort of used to pain now.'

'I'm sorry she turned out to be bad,' Rose said. It was a silly, trivial thing to say, but he appreciated the sentiment.

'Just my luck, eh? Only other Time Lord I've ever found and she turns out to be a renegade. Oh well, story of my life.' He straighed and said, 'How's Commander Excalda getting on?'

'Liana's being delivered to the authorities, the lab's been shut down, the victims who survived are being treated in hospital and he's trying to avoid answering too many awkward questions. Why?'

'I want to be leaving soon,' the Doctor said.

She gave him a hard look. 'We talked about this.'

'Yes, we did,' he agreed.

'Then stop being so impatient to get going,' she said.

There was a knock on the door of the TARDIS.

Rose grinned and went to answer it.

It was Xan. 'I feel very stupid for knocking on the door of a big blue box,' he observed, stepping inside.

'How are things?' the Doctor asked him cheerfully.

'Not bad,' Xan replied. He leant against the wall of the TARDIS. 'The authorities are conducting a full investigation into exactly what Liana's being doing. I've been keeping out of it all, but I have been making sure that the rebels get everything they need to give the investigators.'

'Excellent!' Rose said, delighted.

'All things sorted out,' the Doctor said with slightly less enthusiasm.

'I'm sorry about how it all turned out for you,' Xan said to him, apologetically.

'These things happen,' the Doctor said, shrugging.

There was a short silence.

'So, we're off,' the Doctor said.

Xan shook hands with him and then Rose. 'Thanks,' he said. 'It's been good meeting you both.'

Rose gave the Doctor a meaningful look. When he didn't notice, she kicked him and made a twirling gesture with one hand.

He frowned, then said, 'Oh yes! Rose and I were talking and…'

Xan raised an eyebrow. 'And what?' he asked, bemused.

'You could…come with us…' the Doctor said uncertainly. He and Rose both looked at Xan expectantly.

The young man looked startled. 'Come with you?'

'We both agree it'd be good to have along with us,' the Doctor said.

'Think about it, what do you have here?' Rose said bluntly. 'We're heading out to the stars, Xan. You can come with us, see them all, or you can stay here.'

'Your choice,' the Doctor said cheerfully. 'But you're more than welcome.' He gave the other man a smile, tucking his hands into his pockets. 'Well? You want to come and see the stars with us, travel from one end of space to the other, or stay here?'

Xan laughed. 'How can anyone say no to that?'

* * *

**_Note: There is a sequel in progress! I will be posting up the first chapter soon! (I hope…) I have a basic of idea of how the entire thing is going to go, but if anyone has any ideas then message them to me! I'd be interested to know if anyone does have any ideas!_**


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